Guarding Pandora's Box
by MaureenT
Summary: Tag for Absolute Power. Filled with shame over his actions in the dream Shifu gave him, Daniel is determined not to let the Goa'uld genetic knowledge fall into anyone's hands. But will he be able to prevent it? COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Guarding Pandora's Box **

**Author:** MaureenT  
**Rating:** K+  
**Categories:** Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Action/Adventure  
**Content Warning:** Mild Profanity, Violence  
**Spoilers:** Stargate Movie, In the Line of Duty, Need, Touchstone, Forever in a Day, Jolinar's Memories, The Devil You Know, Shades of Grey, New Ground, Absolute Power

**Author's Note:** The main reason I wrote this story is that every tag I've read for Absolute Power claimed that what Daniel did in the dream was at least partly due to the evil in his own soul. The episode made it clear that is _not_ what happened, that the things Daniel did were because of the evil inherent in the Goa'uld genetic memory. I originally intended for this to be a short Hurt/Comfort story, but then I got to thinking about something that, like so many other things, was never followed up in the series.

* * *

CHAPTER ONE

Everyone sat around the briefing room, their attention focused on a single individual. That individual was Daniel Jackson. Daniel was trying very hard to ignore the stares, his gaze focused on the table before him.

"Doctor Jackson, can you tell us what happened to you during the time that you were unconscious?" General Hammond asked quietly. "The boy said that he was teaching you."

"Um . . . yeah, he was teaching me, all right," Daniel murmured.

There was something off about Daniel's voice, which made Jack look at him more closely. Yep, there was definitely something bothering the guy, and he was trying not to show it.

"Exactly what was he teaching you?" the general prompted.

The archeologist finally lifted his head. His expression was schooled into a calm mask. "That the Goa'uld knowledge he carries is too dangerous to be revealed."

"How did he do that?" the Tok'ra Aldwin asked.

"By giving that knowledge to me."

Everyone else at the table sat up straight.

"You have the knowledge of the Goa'uld?" Sam asked excitedly.

Daniel shook his head. "No, not anymore. I had a dream, and, in that dream, I had the knowledge. But it's gone now. I can't remember anything about any of the weapons or devices that I built."

"What kind of weapons and devices?" Jack asked.

"Ones that the Goa'uld don't have. Well, some of them were."

That made everyone's interest peak even higher. "Are you certain of this, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c queried.

"Positive. If they did, we wouldn't stand a chance against them, and they'd have been using the things on each other all this time."

"For instance?" Aldwin asked.

"For instance, a device that can easily render a Stargate inactive and another device that is capable of detecting approaching Goa'uld ships thousands of light years away and has weapons that can penetrate Goa'uld shields and destroy motherships."

"Cool," Jack remarked. "I'd sure love to have a few of those babies."

"Because of those 'babies', Jack, Earth was on the verge of starting a global nuclear war," Daniel told him, his voice hard.

"Oh. I guess that is kind of a drawback."

"What do you mean, Doctor Jackson?" Hammond asked.

Daniel waved his hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter right now. The point is that the knowledge I had in that dream, the knowledge that's hidden in Shifu's mind, is a lot more than the knowledge that any Goa'uld consciously has."

Hammond frowned. "How is that possible?"

"Shifu is the child of two Goa'uld hosts," Aldwin responded thoughtfully. "It is possible that he possesses memories and knowledge that the Goa'uld are unable to access from their own minds. It may be that the blending of the genetic material from two hosts results in those buried memories being brought to the surface in the mind of the resulting child."

Daniel nodded. "In the vision Sha're sent me, she told me that a Harcesis would have all of the secrets, all of the knowledge of the Goa'uld. This is the reason why Apophis fathered a Harcesis despite it being forbidden and why he and the other System Lords were so determined to find Shifu. A Goa'uld inside Shifu's body would have all that knowledge and would have the power to defeat all the other Goa'uld."

"That is not a warm, comforting thought, Daniel," Jack said.

The archeologist turned to him. "Don't worry, Jack. Shifu is safe. He is in no danger of being made a host. Of that I am certain."

"Yeah, I guess it would be kind of tough for a snake to get inside someone's body when there is no body to get into."

"But this only confirms that we are the ones who should have control of that knowledge," Aldwin said. "It would give us the ability to destroy the Goa'uld once and for all."

Daniel shook his head. "It's too dangerous."

The Tok'ra stared at him. "Doctor Jackson, I appreciate your opinion, but, in the right hands—"

"No," Daniel interrupted. "It's a Pandora's box that has to stay closed."

Aldwin frowned in puzzlement. "Pandora's box?"

"It's from Greek mythology. Epimetheus, the first human created by the god Zeus, had Hades, the god of the underworld, bind inside a box the sprites of disease, hunger, hopelessness, cruelty, and every other terrible thing. Sometime later, the box was given into the care of Pandora, the first human woman. She was warned not to open the box, that there would be terrible consequences if she did. But the lure of the box and Pandora's curiosity were too great, and she opened it, releasing all of those terrible things into the world. The knowledge that Shifu has is like that box. Once it was opened, nothing but evil would come of it, and we would never be able to put that evil back in the box."

"Daniel, I hate to say anything contrary to what you're saying, but hope was also in Pandora's box," Sam pointed out gently.

"Yes, but, though hope could make the pain that Pandora had release into the world easier to bear, it could not erase what had been done. It would have been far better for the box to never have been opened. You may all think that the knowledge Shifu has is our best hope for defeating the Goa'uld, but it's not worth the danger of what could happen if that knowledge is released. You have no idea of the evil that comes with it."

Aldwin shook his head. "I am afraid that I don't agree with your assessment, Doctor Jackson." He turned to General Hammond. "General, though Doctor Jackson has no conscious memory of the knowledge the Harcesis gave him, it is possible that the memory recall device could unearth those memories. I'd like to—"

"No!" Daniel said forcefully. Jack looked at him and saw fear in the archeologist's eyes. Daniel got to his feet, the tension in his body clear to see. "I will not submit to that."

Ignoring Daniel's body language, Aldwin calmly remarked, "Doctor Jackson, I would think that you, above all people, would wish us to have weapons that could defeat the ones who are responsible for the loss of your wife."

Daniel's eyes blazed with fury, pinning the Tok'ra to his seat. Jack almost cringed at the look on the linguist's face, happy that he was not the target of Daniel's wrath.

"Don't you _dare_ throw what happened to my wife in my face!" Daniel shouted. "You aren't listening to me! The Goa'uld knowledge is evil, and it can bring nothing but pain, horror and death. It will corrupt the soul of anyone who has it. Why do you think that Oma made Shifu forget? She knew that he must never have that knowledge. She knew what it would do." Daniel straightened. "Nothing you say or do will make me change my mind. Shifu is out of your reach, and whatever Goa'uld memories may be locked up inside my head are going to stay there."

Without another word, Daniel spun around and strode out of the room. A heavy silence followed his departure. The Tok'ra was the first to break it.

"General Hammond, I must insist—"

"Give it up, Aldwin," Jack said. "You heard Daniel. You are not going to go digging around in his memories, so just forget it."

Ignoring him, the Tok'ra turned back to Hammond. "You are Doctor Jackson's superior, are you not? You can order him to submit to the memory recall."

The general's eyes narrowed. "There's something you need to understand about the way we do things around here, Aldwin. Doctor Jackson may be under my command, but that does not make him a slave. He has the right to refuse to do something that he feels is wrong. Even if he was in the military, our laws would give him the right to refuse to obey an order that was unlawful or blatantly immoral. It is clear that Doctor Jackson has a very good reason to believe that retrieving the Goa'uld knowledge would be disastrous, and I have learned over the years to listen to and respect his opinions and beliefs, especially since he's been right far more often than he has been wrong. Doctor Jackson has given us his answer, and I intend to abide by it."

Clearly not happy with the general's decision, Aldwin rose to his feet. "I will be speaking to the Tok'ra High Council about these things. It is likely that we will be contacting you again concerning them."

Everyone there knew what the Tok'ra was saying, which was that the High Council probably wouldn't want to take no for an answer and would try to make Daniel and Hammond change their minds.

"Yeah, well, give a message to Jacob for us, will you?" Jack said. "And tell him to pass it on to your High Council. The message is, 'when hell freezes over.' He'll understand what that means."

Frowning, Aldwin left the room.

"Thank you for taking Daniel's side, sir," Jack said to his C.O.

"It wasn't a hard decision to make, Colonel, not after seeing how determined he was not to submit to the memory recall device and listening to his reasons why. I would hazard a guess that, in that dream the boy gave him, Doctor Jackson saw very clearly the danger inherent in the Goa'uld knowledge."

"Yeah. I think I need to talk to him about that."

"Don't push him too hard, Jack," Hammond advised. "It's obvious that, whatever he saw in that dream, it disturbed him a great deal. I am going to want a complete report from him, though. I think it may be necessary to get the Tok'ra off our backs and to keep certain individuals in our government from also insisting on the memory recall."

"Yes, sir."

The general dismissed SG-1 and returned to his office.

"Are you going to talk to Daniel now, sir?" Sam asked Jack as they left the briefing room.

"Yeah, I think I should. He was pretty upset, and I want to assure him that nobody is going to force him to go through with that memory recall thing."

Sam nodded. "What do you think Shifu showed him in that dream?"

"I don't know, but, whatever it was, it must have been really bad. He was scared, Carter. I saw it in his eyes when Aldwin talked about that memory recall device. It takes a hell of a lot to scare Daniel that much."

"Tell him that we're on his side and will back him up, okay?"

Jack gave her a small smile. "I will."

Jack headed for Daniel's office, hoping that the archeologist hadn't left the base. When he got there, he stopped just inside the doorway. Daniel was sitting at the desk, staring off at something across the room, though Jack was certain that, whatever it was, Daniel wasn't really seeing it. His gaze was unfocused, his expression both pensive and deeply troubled.

"Hey, Daniel," Jack finally said.

Startled, Daniel swung his head around and stared at Jack. "Oh. Um, hi, Jack."

Jack came the rest of the way into the room. "You okay?"

"I don't know. That all depends on what was decided after I left the debriefing. I meant what I said, Jack, and I am not going to change my mind. I will not submit to the use of the memory recall device, even if I have to quit the SGC."

"That isn't going to be necessary, Daniel. We're all on your side in this, including Hammond. The Tok'ra can whine and complain all they want to, but it won't do them any good."

"And what about the people in _our_ government who think that getting weapons is worth any cost we might have to pay?"

"We'll work it out, Daniel. Don't you worry."

Daniel's gaze dropped to his desk. He picked up a pen and just stared at it. Jack settled in a chair, waiting for him to speak when he was ready. It was a full minute before the younger man broke the silence.

"Do you think of yourself as a good person, Jack?" he asked quietly.

Surprised by the question, Jack did not reply for a moment. "That's a rather loaded question, Daniel."

The archeologist looked at him. "Why?"

Faced with the clear blue gaze of his friend, Jack felt a little uncomfortable. How could he answer that question?

"Because, though I'd like to think that, as a whole, I am a good person, I know that I've done a lot of things that belie that belief."

"But you always did those things thinking that they were the right thing to do, that you were doing what needed to be done to help or protect others."

Jack shook his head. "No, Daniel, not always. You know that I was in Black Ops. I had to do some things then that I knew weren't morally right. But I was under orders, and I knew that my superiors believed that the orders they gave me were necessary for the sake of our country. That didn't stop me from questioning whether or not it was really necessary or just the easiest or most expedient way to solve a problem. I'm not proud of those things that I did, and I know that, if my soul was being weighed, they would be on the wrong side of the scale."

Jack's statement made Daniel think of Sha're's funeral. He wondered if Jack was thinking the same thing when he said it.

"Do you think that I'm a good person?" Daniel asked in a low voice.

"Well, now, that's an easy one, Daniel," Jack said confidently. "Absolutely."

Daniel's gaze returned to that undefined spot across the room. "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely," he murmured.

Jack's brow creased in puzzlement. "What?"

Daniel let out a little sigh. "I always thought of myself as a good person. I always wanted to believe that, in a tough situation, I'd do what was right. Since I opened the Stargate, I've done some things that I never thought I would. I've taken lives. I've learned how to . . . to hate." He turned back to Jack. "Do you know that, before Apophis came to Abydos and took Sha're, I never hated anyone? Oh, there were people that I strongly disliked, some that I would have loved to give a black eye, but I never actually hated anyone. I didn't even hate Ra, not really." His eyes fell to the top of the desk. "Shifu told me that Sha're would be proud of me. I'm not so sure of that."

Jack's puzzlement was growing, along with a feeling of deep concern. "Daniel, what happened in that dream?"

"It was a real wake-up call, Jack. I found out that I'm not as strong as I thought I was. I saw myself as something that . . . that makes me sick."

Jack could see the torment in Daniel's eyes. "You want to talk about it?" he asked gently.

There was a long pause, then, "Shifu said that Oma taught him that the true nature of a man is decided in the battle between his conscious mind and the desires of the subconscious and that the evil in Shifu's subconscious was too strong to resist, that the only way to win the battle was to deny it. In other words, never allow the battle to happen at all."

Jack remembered the boy saying that when he was hooked up to the Zatarc detector. "Oma must be so proud. Sounds like she turned the kid into a mini version of herself."

Unsmiling, Daniel continued. "I didn't listen to him. I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me."

"Which was?"

"In the dream, Shifu didn't just give me the Goa'uld's knowledge of weapons and other technology. He gave me everything, their entire genetic memory."

Jack was starting to get a bad feeling, but he remained silent.

"It is because of their genetic memory that all Goa'uld are born evil, Jack. Do you understand what that means?"

"Yeah, I think I do," Jack replied softly, the bad feeling growing.

"At first, I was only consciously remembering bits and pieces, but I think that, subconsciously, it was affecting me right from the start. In time, I remembered more and more. Thousands and thousands of years of evil, and hatred, and a lust for power. It was all there in my head. It . . . changed me." Daniel looked at Jack with haunted eyes. "I became a Goa'uld, Jack. I didn't have a symbiote inside me, but I became a Goa'uld. And I didn't even try to fight it. I let it happen. I did . . . I did some awful things, without conscience or remorse. I deliberately sent Teal'c on a mission that I knew would get him killed. I had Sam thrown in prison and labeled a nutcase because she figured out what I was doing."

"And me?"

"Well, you got off light. I simply forced you into a situation where you had to try to kill me, then let you watch me blow up Moscow."

"Moscow, huh?"

"Gone in about five seconds. No residual radiation, by the way. I made sure of that. After all, I wanted there to be something left of the Earth so that I could conquer it."

Jack looked at Daniel closely. The archeologist's voice was almost conversational, like he was discussing the weather or something. But his eyes . . . his eyes were dark with pain, with the memory of seeing himself turned into a monster.

"Daniel—"

"I didn't fight it, Jack," Daniel said, his voice starting to tremble. "I let it control me. I let it turn me into something equally as evil as the Goa'uld. I thought I'd be stronger than that."

Jack looked at his friend intently. "Daniel, listen to me. What did Shifu say? He said that the evil in his subconscious, the evil that's in the Goa'uld genetic memory, was too strong for even him to fight even though he was raised by that Oma person, who sounds like she's a pretty smart lady and a good role model to boot."

"I know, but—"

"But nothing. Daniel, you _are_ a good person. Hell, you've got more integrity and a stronger code of ethics than any human being I've ever met. I should know considering how many times that morality of yours has been a major pain in the ass. Okay, so, in that dream, you were overwhelmed by all that evil and it took control of you. You know what that tells me? It tells me that Shifu was right not to give us that knowledge, because if someone like you couldn't overcome that evil, then _nobody_ could." Jack leaned forward. "Daniel, do you think that you'd ever have done those things if you weren't being affected by the genetic memories?"

"No!" Daniel exclaimed, just the thought of doing things like that making him feel like vomiting.

"That's right, you wouldn't, because that evil was not something that is inside you."

"I know that, Jack. I just feel ashamed that I wasn't strong enough to fight it, that I let it happen."

"Did you?"

Daniel looked at him questioningly.

"Did you really _let_ it happen?"

"I didn't put up a fight."

"So, what were you thinking while you were doing all those things? Were you thinking, 'Gosh, I know that this is really wrong, but I don't care'?"

"I-I, uh . . . no. I didn't even think about the fact that it was wrong. It never entered my mind. I felt like it was the way it should be, that the power was rightfully mine and that everything I did was justified. I believed that it was what I wanted all along."

"And, now that you're in your right mind, do you still feel that way?"

"No! Of course not!"

Jack nodded shortly. "Daniel, you said it yourself. You became a Goa'uld, and we all know that the Goa'uld have no conscience. They've bought into their own story that they're gods and think they have the right to do whatever they please to get what they want. You had thousands of years worth of those thoughts and beliefs in your head. It's no surprise that it overwrote your own personality and turned you into one of them. Even the pope himself would have been taken over by it."

Daniel's gaze had returned to the desktop, his brow knit in thought.

"You're not weak, Daniel, not by a longshot. I doubt that there's a human being in the universe who could be given that knowledge and not be corrupted by it."

A look of gratitude filled Daniel's face as he lifted it to look at Jack. "Thank, Jack."

"You're welcome." The colonel paused. "Um, I know that this is not something you want a lot of people to know about, Daniel, but the general needs you to write a report on your experience. He thinks it could help convince the Tok'ra and anyone else that you're right about the Goa'uld knowledge being too dangerous."

Daniel thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Maybe it will. Okay, I'll work on the report now."

Jack got up and headed for the door. He paused before going through and looked at Daniel over his shoulder. "Daniel? Shifu was right about something else. Sha're _would_ be proud of you. Don't ever doubt that." Then he left.

Daniel stared at the empty doorway for a while, a tiny smile on his face. Then he turned to his computer, booted it up, and began working on his report.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

It was late morning of the following day when Daniel gave his report to General Hammond, also giving a copy to Jack. Hammond read the report with surprise and more a little alarm as it described in brutal detail how the genetic knowledge of the Goa'uld turned a gentle, compassionate, deeply noble man like Daniel Jackson into a cold-blooded mass murderer. It sent a chill down the general's spine, and he could only imagine what Daniel must be feeling at witnessing himself become such a heartless killer. No wonder the young man didn't want anyone trying to unearth the Goa'uld knowledge. He was probably terrified that he'd become that person for real. It was a fear that was completely justified. If the Goa'uld genetic knowledge was hidden somewhere within Daniel's subconscious and the Tok'ra memory recall device brought it forth into his conscious mind, Daniel could very well become the Goa'uld-like person that he did in that dream. It was a very real danger, one from which they needed to protect both Daniel and Earth.

The general called Jack to his office. When the colonel arrived, Hammond gestured toward Daniel's report. "I'm assuming that you've read this."

"Yes, sir. Daniel told me some of it yesterday, though he skipped over a lot of the details. It's hard to imagine him becoming that kind of person. Even when he was affected by the sarcophagus addiction, he didn't entirely lose his sense of what was right and wrong. If he had, he wouldn't have kept trying to get me, Carter and Teal'c out of the mines. He'd have just left us there to die. But that genetic knowledge, it completely erased the kind of person Daniel is, made him a Goa'uld. It's no wonder that he doesn't want anyone digging around in his memories."

"Yes, and you can be certain that will not happen. What Doctor Jackson reported here should be enough to convince the Tok'ra and everyone else that this 'Pandora's box' needs to remain closed."

"You sure about that, sir? The Tok'ra are so arrogant that they might think they wouldn't be corrupted by it. There's also the fact that all those genetic memories aren't inside _their_ heads. If they hooked Daniel up to one of those memory gadgets and took a look at what's in his head, it's Daniel who'd pay the price, not them. The Tok'ra would simply get whatever info they wanted about the weapons and other stuff, then leave Daniel to his fate, which would end up being a prison cell where he could never hurt anyone."

"I should hope that the Tok'ra have more integrity than that, Colonel."

"I hope so, too. I also hope that our 'friends' in the NID don't get any ideas about doing something like that."

"I hate to admit it, Colonel, but that concerns me more than the Tok'ra do."

Jack sighed. "Yeah, me too."

Just then, the warning of an unscheduled off-world gate activation blared over the speakers. Jack and the general went to the control room, where they learned that it was the Tok'ra. A few moments later, two Tok'ra appeared through the Stargate. Jack was relieved to see that one of them was Jacob. Unfortunately, the other one was Garshaw.

"Oh, boy," he muttered. "This is _not_ going to be fun."

Sam came into the control room. "Dad's here? Uh oh. Garshaw too, huh. Is this about Daniel?"

"No doubt."

"Should we call him? I think he's still hiding out in his office. He's hardly stuck his head out of there since yesterday."

"I'm out now," said a voice behind them. They all turned to see Daniel. He walked up to them and watched as the two Tok'ra left the gate room. "I see that they're here already." Everyone could hear the anxiety in his voice.

"Hey, what did I tell you before, Daniel?" Jack said. "We're not going to let them do anything to you that you don't agree to."

A few moments later, Jacob and Garshaw entered the control room.

"Hey, Sam," Jacob greeted his daughter. Sam stepped forward and hugged him.

"I'm glad you came, Dad," Sam told him in a low voice, knowing that her father would be fair and would care about Daniel's welfare.

"General Hammond, Colonel O'Neill," Garshaw greeted. She looked at Daniel. "Doctor Jackson."

Hammond also turned to Daniel. "Doctor Jackson, I believe it would be best if you did not attend this meeting."

"What? Why? I'm the one this whole thing is about. I think that I have the right to hear what's said and to argue my own case."

"I know that, Son, but you've already given the best argument possible in your report, which I will be sharing with the Tok'ra. We are simply going to be discussing things. No decisions are going to be made without you being present. If I feel that you should be involved in the discussion, I will have you paged."

"Don't worry, Daniel," Jack told him. "I'll be there." He looked at Hammond. "Right?"

The general nodded.

Jack turned back to his friend. "I'll be your, um, advocate, okay?"

The archeologist looked at Jack for a long moment. He wanted to insist on being at the meeting, but maybe Hammond was right. He didn't think that he'd be able to keep a lid on his emotions if Garshaw started insisting that he undergo the memory recall procedure. It might be best if he kept his distance for now.

"All right."

"Good," the general said. "Major Carter, it appears to be lunchtime. Why don't you and Doctor Jackson go to the commissary and get yourselves something to eat."

"Yes, sir."

After she and Daniel left, the Tok'ra were ushered into the briefing room.

"As you have apparently already guessed, we have come to ask that you and Doctor Jackson reconsider allowing us to use the memory recall device on him," Garshaw said once they had all taken seats. "We cannot stress enough how important the knowledge he may carry could be to our efforts against our common enemy."

"Yes, we figured that's why you were here," Hammond confirmed. "But, before we start this discussion, I think you should see why Doctor Jackson is so dead set against it and why he told all of us that the Goa'uld genetic memory is too dangerous." He got Daniel's report and tossed it onto the table in front of the two Tok'ra. "That is Doctor Jackson's report of what happened in the dream the Harcesis child gave him. I suggest you read it. It's quite an eye-opener."

The Tok'ra began to read the report. A frown formed on Garshaw's face and a look of surprise on Jacob's. Sam's father looked up at Jack and Hammond.

"Daniel actually did these things in that dream?" There was a note of disbelief in his voice.

"That's what he said," Jack replied. "And, judging by how the memory of that dream is affecting him now, there's no doubt that every word is true."

"The Tok'ra have always known that the Goa'uld genetic memory is the reason why all Goa'uld are born with a lust for power and a lack of morality, but we never considered the possibility that, if exposed to that genetic memory, the same thing would happen to a human. I guess it stands to reason that it would. The genetic memory would be so powerful that it would overwhelm the person, completely corrupting their own personality."

"So, you can understand why Daniel doesn't want to let you play around with his memories. It's way too risky."

"It is possible that, if we proceed with caution, we could retrieve just the memories of the Goa'uld technology and leave the most damaging memories untouched," Garshaw said.

Jacob opened his mouth to say something, but Jack beat him to it. "And what are the odds of that being successful?" he asked angrily. "Do you honestly believe that we'd be willing to risk Daniel being turned into a human version of a Goa'uld so that you can get at the memories you want?"

"Sometimes, risks have to be taken and sacrifices made. It is regrettable, but occasionally necessary."

"Well, so much for your integrity," Jack snapped. "You Tok'ra have never shown all that much concern or compassion for humans who aren't hosts to your kind. You can be as callous as the Goa'uld sometimes."

Garshaw's eyes flared. "How dare you compare us to the Goa'uld!"

"Well, then stop acting like them! Stop acting like unfeeling robots who don't care how many humans die as long as it helps you in the war."

"Colonel O'Neill, that is enough," General Hammond commanded. He turned to Garshaw. "Although I do not agree with all that the colonel said, he is right about at least one thing. Though, in war, risks do have to be taken and, sometimes, sacrifices made, it would be utterly unconscionable to force Doctor Jackson to submit to something that could result in the loss of who he is as a person. I will _not_ allow that to happen, regardless of the possible benefits." He looked at Jacob. "Do you feel the same as Garshaw does?"

"No, I don't, George. I already told Garshaw and the rest of the council that I would not be party to forcing Daniel to do anything against his will. Now that I've read this report, I am completely in agreement with you that we need to leave well enough alone. We'd be playing with fire, and Daniel's the one who'd get burned the most." Jacob turned to Garshaw. "You know very well that the memory recall device is not capable of selectively isolating and bringing forth specific memories while leaving all other memories alone. It would be impossible to just get the knowledge of the Goa'uld technology. Do you really want to see Daniel, who has bravely fought the Goa'uld for four years and has repeatedly helped the Tok'ra, turned into what he became in that dream?"

"No, of course not," the woman replied. "It would be a tragedy if that were to happen. But if his knowledge could put an end to the Goa'uld and save the lives of millions of humans and Tok'ra, would it not be a price worth paying?"

"Not to us," Jack answered, "and certainly not since there's no guarantee that you'd get anything from Daniel that would put an end to all the Goa'uld. Even if you could get the plans for some fancy new weapons, the Goa'uld could turn right around and steal them from you. You've had more than one instance in the past where one of your own turned out to be a rotten apple. And there's that whole Zatarc thing, too. One of your people could be turned into one of them and programmed to steal the technology. Then we'd all be in big trouble."

Jacob nodded. "That is a good point."

"Daniel called this a Pandora's box, and I think he hit the nail right on the head when he said that. We need to keep this box closed and locked."

"Very well," Garshaw said reluctantly. "You do make a convincing argument. It would be disastrous if any technology we gained from the Goa'uld genetic memory fell into their hands."

"I hate to say this," Jacob said, "but this brings up another possible danger. What if the Goa'uld learn about what happened and decide that they want to see if Daniel has that information somewhere still in his head? That could put Daniel in a great deal more jeopardy."

"We just have to hope that doesn't happen," Jack responded. "You've got all those spies in the enemy camp. They can just keep their ears to the ground, and if they learn that some Goa'uld has found out, you can tell us, and we'll take precautions."

Jacob gave them a nod. "We'll do that." He looked at everyone. "If we're finished, I'd like to visit with my daughter for a few minutes before Garshaw and I head back."

"Certainly, Jacob," Hammond responded. "If they followed my instructions, you should find both her and Doctor Jackson in the commissary."

Jacob went to the commissary. Sure enough, his daughter and the archeologist were there. Daniel was just poking at his food, and it was clear that Sam was trying to cheer him up. Her hand was resting on his left forearm, and she was looking at him intently, speaking in a low voice.

"Hey, you two," Jacob said as he came up to the table.

Twin pairs of anxious blue eyes lifted to his questioningly.

Jacob smiled down at the linguist. "Relax, Daniel. We've all agreed that the memory recall device should not be used on you."

Daniel visibly relaxed, as did Sam.

"Thanks, Jacob."

"Thanks from me, too, Dad," Sam said.

Jacob took the seat beside his daughter. "I can't stay long, Sam, but we've got a few minutes. Care to have a short visit with your old man?"

Sam smiled. "Sure, Dad. I'd love to visit with you." She turned to Daniel. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay."

Sam gave his arm a squeeze. "Everything's going to be fine, Daniel."

He gave her a little smile and a nod. "I know."

As Sam and Jacob left, Daniel turned back to his food. Even having gotten the good news, he still didn't have much of an appetite.

After the incident with the sarcophagus addiction, Daniel had been utterly ashamed of what he did while under its influence. It had taken a lot for his teammates to convince him that it wasn't his fault, that he had not been responsible for his actions, and that the person he'd become was not the real Daniel Jackson. If the events of the dream he experienced yesterday had happened for real, would they have been able to forgive him again? Of course, Teal'c couldn't have. He'd have been dead, the victim of Daniel's hatred of him over the death of Sha're. Was that hatred lurking for real inside Daniel somewhere? He didn't want to believe that. When he, Sam and Jack were prisoners of the Bedrosians, would he have protected Teal'c with such determination if he'd hated the Jaffa? Daniel didn't think so.

"So, you gonna eat that or just use it to decorate the plate?"

Daniel looked up to see Jack standing beside him. The colonel sat in the chair Sam had vacated.

Daniel put down his fork with a sigh. "I guess I'm just not very hungry."

"Didn't Jacob tell you that everyone agreed to leave your brain alone?"

"Yes, he did. And thank you for being my advocate. I'm sure that it wasn't easy to convince Garshaw to agree."

"No, it wasn't. I had to point out the fact that, if they did get anything from you, their track record for having traitors in their midst was not good."

Daniel smiled faintly. "I brought up the same point in the dream when I insisted that we not tell the Tok'ra about the Goa'uld defense system we were going to build."

"Ah. Well, you know what they say. Great minds think alike."

That made Daniel's smile widen a little more. It didn't last long, however.

"Daniel, are you still bothered by what happened in that dream? I thought we got it all straightened out that you would have been powerless to resist those Goa'uld memories."

"We did. It's just that some of the things still bother me, especially what I did to Teal'c. I was also pretty awful to Sam. I accused her of being jealous."

"Jealous?"

"Yep, because I was the one to come up with the means to defend Earth against the Goa'uld, not her. Then I had her thrown in jail."

"Give me any nice compliments while you were at it?"

"Oh, you bet. I said that you never were all that bright."

"Ouch."

Daniel looked at him earnestly. "I don't really believe that, Jack."

"I know, Daniel, though, compared to you and Carter, it is true. Daniel, all the things you said, all the things you did in that dream, they weren't you. You would never send Teal'c off to be killed. You would never do those things to Carter. You would never do anything horrible enough that I would try to kill you. Don't even _start_ to think that any of those things came from some dark part of your psyche, because it's not true. Yes, we all have a dark side to our natures, but not even the darkest part of your soul would do something even _close_ to what you did in that dream. It just isn't possible. Take my word for it, the man you couldn't pull the trigger on even when you were crazed from withdrawal and your mind had been twisted by the sarcophagus."

Daniel's eyes closed tightly in remembrance of that moment in the storage room. He felt Jack's hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, Daniel," the colonel said. "I asked Hammond to give you the rest of the day off to unwind, and I'm going to help you do it. I've got a couple of tickets to a hockey game tonight. I was going to ask Teal'c to join me, but I think you need to get your mind off everything."

"Jack, I'm really not all that crazy about hockey."

"Yeah, I know, but there's nothing like the roar of the crowd and the sight of twelve guys battling it out on the ice to make you forget about your troubles. Come on, Daniel. I'll take you wherever you want to go for dinner before the game."

Daniel hesitated, then gave Jack a nod. "Okay." He had to admit that it would be good to put everything out of his mind for a while.

Jack grinned broadly. "Great. Let's go get into our civvies and get out of here."

* * *

Daniel had more fun that evening than he had thought he would. He could thank Jack for that. The older man refused to allow him to mope. It made Daniel feel good to know that Jack still cared like that. Over the past year, things had not been so good between them, and Daniel had begun to feel like their friendship was failing, especially since the events on Euronda. It had been really nice to spend an evening with Jack. They didn't do that very much anymore.

They were now at Jack's house, sharing a few beers and talking about the game. Actually, it was Jack who was talking about the game. Daniel was mostly just listening.

As Jack paused for breath, Daniel excused himself and went to the bathroom. As he was washing his hands, he glanced at his reflection in the mirror. Suddenly, an intense memory from the dream hit him. He was standing in front of the mirror, shaving and thinking about how he was going to get rid of Teal'c and make it appear to have been unintentional.

Daniel gasped and stepped back hastily. His heart beating heavily in his chest, he stood unmoving for a long moment, staring at himself. Then he turned the water off and dried his shaking hands. He waited until he had calmed down before exiting the bathroom.

"What took you so long?" Jack asked. "I was beginning to think you fell. . . . Daniel, are you all right?"

Daniel saw the concern on his friend's face. "Um . . . yeah, I'm okay. I just. . . ." He shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing."

"Now, why don't I believe you? Cough it up, Daniel. Obviously, something happened while you were in the john."

Daniel sat on the couch. "I just had a really strong flashback of something that happened in the dream, that's all. It was . . . disconcerting."

"Disconcerting? It was something 'disconcerting' that made you look like you'd seen a ghost?"

"I flashed back to when I was plotting how I was going to kill Teal'c," Daniel told him bluntly.

Jack grimaced. "Oh." There was a long, uncomfortable moment of silence after that.

"I can remember every action I took in that dream, every thought I had," Daniel said in a low voice, "but I have no recollection of the Goa'uld knowledge or genetic memories. I can recall myself drawing out the blueprints for the defense system and helping to build it, but I can't remember the details of the blueprints, how the defense system was built, what made the weapons work, nothing. I can remember how my mind and soul were changed by the memories of the Goa'uld, but not what those memories were. But, now, I'm starting to worry that, someday, that will change, that I'll remember everything and become that . . . that person I was in the dream."

"That ain't gonna happen, Daniel. I'm certain that Shifu made sure those memories were locked up tight inside your head. Maybe they're no longer even there."

Daniel said nothing for a long time, then, "Jack, I need you to promise me something. I need you to promise that, if it ever does happen, if I start to turn into what I was in that dream, you'll kill me."

"Daniel, don't ask me that!" Jack exclaimed, distressed.

Daniel looked at him pleadingly. "Jack, please. You tried to do it in the dream, but you were too late. You waited too long. I need to know that I can count on you to stop me from hurting anyone. You'd do it if I was made a host to a Goa'uld and you had no other choice, wouldn't you?"

Jack couldn't answer for several seconds. This was touching on a fear he'd had for a long time, that he'd be forced to kill a member of his team after they'd been taken over by a Goa'uld. But Daniel was right. If there was no other choice, Jack would do what he had to . . . no matter how much it would kill him inside.

"Yes, I would, Daniel. I'd try everything else in my power first, but, if it was the only thing I could do, I would."

Daniel relaxed. "Then promise me that you'll do the same if I regain the Goa'uld genetic memory and it changes me."

Jack sighed deeply. "All right, Daniel. I promise."

"Thank you."

"But it's never gonna happen, so it's a promise I will never have to keep."

After that, the air between Daniel and Jack was subdued. A short while later, the younger man went home. Troubled by the thoughts that Daniel had brought up, it took a long time for Jack to get to sleep.

* * *

"Where in the hell is he?" Jack asked angrily. He, Sam and Teal'c were in the briefing room. They were scheduled to go on a mission, the first one since the incident with Shifu five days ago. Daniel had called from his car, saying that he was running a little late and would be there in plenty of time. It was now fifteen minutes past the time that the briefing was supposed to start. They'd tried his cell phone, but got no answer. General Hammond was presently in his office on an unexpected phone call.

"Sir, what if Daniel got into an accident?" Sam asked worriedly.

That instantly doused Jack's anger, replacing it with anxiety.

"Perhaps we should attempt to learn Daniel Jackson's location," Teal'c suggested.

"Yeah, maybe we should," the colonel agreed.

General Hammond returned to the room.

"Sir, we're starting to get worried about Daniel," Jack said. "He should have been here by now. When he called, he said that he was on his way and wouldn't be late. Something must have happened, something that is preventing him from calling the base."

The general's face adopted a concerned look. "You think that he may have had a car accident?"

"I really hope not, but, yeah, it's a possibility. The roads are kind of slick. We'd like to go out and look for him. I know the route he takes to work."

Hammond nodded. "Do it."

"Thank you, sir."

A short while later, the three members of SG-1 were in the colonel's car, searching for their missing teammate. They were all getting pretty worried now, knowing that Daniel would not be this late unless something had happened.

They were only about a mile and a half from the base when Sam thought she saw something off the side of the road.

"Sir, stop! I think I saw something back there."

Jack halted and backed up the car. They looked down the embankment and saw something that sent their hearts up into their throats. Daniel's car was at the bottom, smashed up against a big pine tree.

Sam, Jack and Teal'c scrambled out of Jack's car.

"Daniel!" Jack called. He slid down the bank, followed closely by Sam and Teal'c. Terrified of what they might find, they ran up to the car.

"He's not here," Jack said, unsure if he should be relieved or frightened. What if Daniel received a head injury and, in his confusion, had wandered off into the woods? It could take hours or even days to find him.

"Daniel!" Jack yelled, Sam doing likewise as they stepped into the forest.

"O'Neill! You must see this," Teal'c called.

Jack and Sam returned to the car. The Jaffa was kneeling beside the front end on the driver's side.

"There is paint from a car of a different color here." He pointed at a place where the body was badly scraped and dented. Sure enough, streaks of black were visible on the blue paint of the car.

"Somebody hit him, and he went off the road," Jack said.

"There is more," Teal'c announced. He rose to his feet and pointed at the ground. "There are tracks from three men here. They removed Daniel Jackson from his car. He was apparently unconscious or badly injured." Teal'c followed the tracks a short way. "He was dragged up the embankment and no doubt placed in the vehicle that caused his car to go off the road."

"My God," Sam whispered. "Somebody took Daniel."

Jack's face hardened. "The question is, was it an accident and whomever was responsible stupidly decided to take Daniel to a hospital themselves or was this deliberate?"

Sam's eyes widened in fear. "Sir, what if it was the NID? What if they did this to get at the Goa'uld genetic knowledge?"

Jack cursed. "Carter, call Hammond and tell him what happened. He needs to send a team here to look for forensic evidence."

As Sam did that, Jack walked away a few paces, his shoulders stiff with anger.

"Do you believe that Major Carter is correct about the NID?" Teal'c asked as he came up beside the colonel.

"I don't know, but my gut is telling me yes. Dammit! I should have guessed that they might try something like this. We knew that all the players weren't caught after I went undercover for the Asgard, Nox and Tollans. We have proof that Kinsey was involved in that whole thing, and he's still free."

"Would not those who took Daniel Jackson need one of the memory recall devices to get the knowledge from him?"

"I don't know. They might try using drugs or some other method. But it wouldn't surprise me if they did get their hands on one of those memory things. Look at all the stuff they managed to steal from the Asgard and the Tollans."

Sam came up to them. "A team is on the way, sir."

"All right, let's get back up to the road and wait for them. Then we need to get back to the base and make a few calls."

They ascended the embankment and waited beside Jack's car.

"Sir, if the NID did take Daniel, and they manage to pull those memories out of his subconscious. . . ." Sam's voice trailed off.

"I know, Carter," Jack responded in a low voice, his stomach clenching. Sam and Teal'c had both been told the whole truth about Daniel's dream and knew what was at stake, what it might mean if the Goa'uld genetic memories in Daniel's head were released.

Jack recalled the promise he made to his friend four days ago. _'Please don't make me have to fulfill that promise, Daniel. You have to be all right when we find you.'_ But what if, by the time they did find him, the NID had killed him? Jack had to hope that they wouldn't do that, that they'd consider Daniel to be too valuable a resource for information.

Once the forensics team had arrived, Jack, Sam and Teal'c returned to the base. They went to Hammond's office to find out if he'd learned anything. The general, who was clearly very worried, told them that a call to the nearest hospital had revealed that Daniel had not been taken there, confirming that the archeologist had, indeed, been kidnapped. He then gave the three members of SG-1 unofficial permission to do whatever was necessary to find Daniel and bring him home. As they left the general's office, he was picking up the red phone to contact the president.

The three members of SG-1 went to Daniel's office.

"What are we going to do, sir?" Sam asked Jack.

"First, there are some phone calls that I can make," he replied. "I've still got quite a few contacts in the intelligence community and several favors that I can call in."

"Is there anything that I may do to aid the search?" Teal'c asked.

"Not right now, but if we need to beat up a few people to get them to talk, I'll be sure to let you share in the honors."

"I will be quite willing to do so, O'Neill," the Jaffa said, a dangerous tone in his voice. Jack almost pitied anyone who got in Teal'c's way during their efforts to find Daniel. On second thought, maybe he'd just get a bag of popcorn and sit back and enjoy the show as Teal'c tore the person limb from limb . . . that is after he broke a few of the guy's bones himself.

"Sir, I'd like to do some poking around on the Internet," Sam said. "I might be able to find out something."

"Good idea." The colonel looked at his second in command, seeing the fear in her eyes. "We're going to find him, Carter. Count on it."

"I know, sir. But will we find him in time?"

Not answering, Jack left for his office, praying that the answer to Sam's question would be yes. 


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

"You idiot!" Colonel Marcus Breck roared over the phone. "You were supposed to bring him back unharmed! How the hell are we going to get any information from him if he's unconscious?"

"I'm sorry, sir. It was not intentional," Major Raymond Howell explained. "When we forced him off the road, we failed to see that there was a steep embankment in that spot. By the time we realized it, it was too late. Lieutenant Newman says that it's just a concussion, and Jackson should regain consciousness within a few hours. He does have two broken ribs, however, so we need to be careful in handling him. Newman does not think there are any internal injuries, though his medical knowledge is limited."

"Do whatever it takes to keep Jackson alive, Major. I don't think I need to tell you how important he is. The Goa'uld knowledge in his mind will give us what we need to protect Earth."

"Yes, sir." Howell paused. "Sir, are you sure that the memory device will work? Can it extract memories buried in the subconscious?"

"It did succeed in bringing out the repressed memories that Jolinar left in Major Carter's mind, so the chances are good that it will do the same with the Goa'uld memories. However, we're going to try the hypnosis first, which has been proven to be able to unearth memories buried in the subconscious. Once the Goa'uld knowledge has been retrieved from Jackson's subconscious, we can use the memory device to get everything we want."

Howell nodded, though the colonel could not see him. "We received word that Jackson's car was found by SG-1. A forensics team is examining it."

"Is there any chance that they'll be able to trace anything back to us?"

"No, sir. The car we used was stolen and has been destroyed. There were no witnesses to the incident. Nothing was left behind that could reveal our identities."

"Good. As soon as Jackson is conscious and aware enough, have Newman put him under hypnosis. I want you to call me the second you think that he's sufficiently recovered."

"Yes, sir."

Howell disconnected the call, thinking that, very soon, they might have all the advanced technology they'd need to protect Earth against the Goa'uld.

* * *

Jack slammed down the phone. Four hours. Four long hours, and he was no closer to finding Daniel than he had been when he started. None of his contacts had any information on what might have happened to the archeologist. Sam's Internet search had also yielded nothing, even though she had gotten into several classified sites, like the CIA's and NSA's. Whoever had taken Daniel was flying completely under the radar. Sam and Teal'c were now at the NID headquarters in Nevada, hoping that they'd be able to find out something from someone there.

Jack was sick with worry. His worry had increased even more when the forensics team reported finding blood in Daniel's car. Either he had been injured in the crash or the people who took him had hurt him. Either way, Jack had been spending part of these hours thinking up all the ways that he could torture the people who grabbed his friend.

Jack rested his head in his hands. He'd run out of people to call. Hammond, too, had been spending a lot of time on the phone. His call to the president had resulted in a promise from the Commander in Chief that he'd do everything in his power to find out who took Daniel and where the archeologist was being kept. Since the knowledge that Daniel might hold could be considered a threat to national security in the wrong hands, the president was taking the kidnapping very seriously, as were a lot of other people. Things were definitely going to get hot for whomever took the archeologist. Jack could only hope that the heat would be enough to flush them out into the open.

As Jack sat, wondering what he could do to help the search now, a name popped into his head. He picked up the phone and called back one of the individuals he'd contacted earlier.

"Hey, it's Jack again. No, I know that you wouldn't have any info on Daniel yet. I want you to see if you can get me a contact number or email address for someone else: Harry Maybourne."

* * *

An aching pain in his head and a much sharper pain in his chest roused Daniel from unconsciousness. He opened his eyes a slit and looked up at the featureless white ceiling above him. The ceiling and the absolute silence in the room clued him into the fact that he was not in the infirmary at the SGC. So, where was he?

Cautiously, Daniel turned his head to the side, biting back a moan when the movement upped the pain in his head by several notches. He was in a barren room with two doors and a window that was barred and shuttered. He spied a closed circuit camera in the corner near the ceiling. The bed he was lying on was the only piece of furniture in the room, except for a lone chair nearby.

Daniel tried to remember what had happened to him. The last thing he could recall was leaving for work. He touched his forehead and found a bandage on the left side, near his temple. The blurred vision, nausea and splitting headache all told him that he had a nasty concussion. The pain in his chest sent his hands to that location. Daniel had suffered from cracked ribs on more than one occasion, but he couldn't ever remember it hurting quite this much. Maybe, this time, he'd broken one or two. He tried to take a deep breath, but instantly regretted it as agony set fire to his nerve endings. He couldn't stop the groan that escaped his lips. Gritting his teeth, Daniel took fast, shallow breaths until the pain had subsided. Okay, his little test had probably pretty much confirmed that he had at least one broken rib. He just hoped that's all that was wrong in there.

The sound of the door opening drew Daniel's attention to it. A tall, dark-haired man he didn't recognize came in.

"Hello, Doctor Jackson," he said pleasantly. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, just wonderful for someone with a concussion and broken ribs. How about you?"

The man smiled faintly. Something about the smile made Daniel guess that the man did not have his best interests at heart.

"I apologize for that. We didn't intend to injure you when we picked you up."

"Picked me up? Forgive me if I seem dense, but I have no idea what happened."

"Ah, yes. That would be because of the concussion. Well, let me fill you in. I am a member of a group of individuals who are very interested in the knowledge that the Harcesis child placed in your mind. We want that knowledge, and, since we knew that you wouldn't volunteer to give it to us, we intercepted you on your way to work this morning. Unfortunately, in the process, your car went off the road and down a steep embankment. That's how you received your injuries."

Daniel was starting to grow drowsy. "Too bad. I bet this puts a crimp in your timetable, huh."

"Oh, don't concern yourself about that. Since nobody has any idea where you are, we can afford to allow you a bit of time to heal before we try to get the information from you."

Daniel could feel himself fading out. He tried to remain conscious, but it was a losing battle. "You don't understand what you're doing. It's . . . too dangerous." The last word was barely a whisper as darkness closed over him again.

* * *

The email to Harry Maybourne had been sent off two hours ago. Jack didn't know how long it would be before he received a reply – or if he would even get one at all. Until then, all he could really do was wait. Jack hated waiting. He felt like he needed to be out there looking for Daniel. But how could he look when he had no idea where to go? They were all positive that the NID was behind Daniel's kidnapping, but there was no proof. Sam and Teal'c's trip to Nevada had been fruitless, though they'd talked to everyone they could. Actually, Sam had talked while Teal'c loomed threateningly. The looming and the talking accomplished nothing. Everyone there claimed that they knew nothing about Daniel's disappearance.

The ringing of the phone startled Jack out of his thoughts. He picked up the receiver.

"O'Neill."

"Hello, Jack," drawled a familiar voice.

"Well, hello there, Harry. How good of you to call."

"Well, it's the least that I could do considering that I have you to thank for my freedom in this tropical paradise."

"Yeah, well, the next chance I get, I'll be seeing about changing that."

"So, I got your message. What's this all about? It must be pretty serious for you to contact me."

"Daniel's missing. Somebody snatched him this morning."

"How tragic. So, what reason did someone have for taking your pet archeologist?"

"Oh, I'd be willing to bet that you already know that, Harry."

"Jack, Jack, Jack. I'm no longer in that business. I'm now just a man of leisure enjoying my retirement."

"Get off it, Maybourne," Jack snapped. "Guys like you never retire. You've still got your fingers in the pie."

"Well, even if I do, what makes you think that I know anything about Jackson's kidnapping?"

"Because it involves the Stargate Program and because your ex-pals in the NID are behind it. Daniel was taken because of knowledge that he may have about advanced Goa'uld technology. That's exactly what you and the people you worked with wanted. So, stop pretending that you don't know anything."

There was a brief moment of silence. "All right, I may have heard something about Jackson and an interest in some knowledge he may possess, but I don't know who took him or where he is."

"Then find out. You've got the contacts. I'm sure you can get information that we can't."

"And why should I do that, Jack? Jackson's been a sore spot on my ass since he helped the Tollans escape."

"Well, I can give you three reasons, Harry. The first is that the president himself is involved in the hunt since the knowledge Daniel may have could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. It's being considered a threat to the country, make that a threat to the entire planet. If, in pursuing leads in the case, something should lead back to you, I doubt that there being no extradition treaty with the U.S. wherever you are will stop our government from hauling your ass back here and back into a nice cozy jail cell. The second reason is that you know how valuable Daniel is to the program, how much we need his skills. Your people and the SGC may go about things differently, but we both have the welfare of Earth foremost in our minds." Jack's tone darkened. "The third reason is me. If something happens to Daniel, there is not a place on this entire planet that you can hide where I won't find you, and I promise you that, by the time Teal'c and I get through with you, there won't be enough left to put in a shoebox, let alone a jail cell. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, I'd say that you expressed yourself quite adequately, Jack."

"Good. I wouldn't want there to be any misunderstandings between us."

"All right, I'll see what I can come up with. I'll call you back at this number if and when I've learned something. Always a pleasure chatting with you, Jack."

A click and the following silence told Jack that Maybourne had hung up. He returned the receiver to its cradle. He hated having to turn to the ex-NID man for help, but he was desperate. The more time that passed with Daniel in the hands of his kidnappers, the higher the chances were that, by the time they found him, he'd either be dead or would no longer be the man they all knew. Between the two eventualities, he knew that his friend would prefer the former. But what if it was the latter? Would there be any way that they could put the Goa'uld memories back in their hiding place, close Pandora's box? Oma Desala could probably do it. After all, she made Shifu forget. But how would they get in touch with her? Tell all SG teams to be on the lookout for glowy people?

Figuring that Maybourne wouldn't call back for a while, Jack went to Sam's lab. He found the scientist sitting in a chair by her computer. She was staring at something in her hands. As Jack got closer, he realized that it was the broken remains of Daniel's glasses. The forensics team had found them on the floor of Daniel's car. The left lens was cracked, the frames bent.

"Carter?" Jack inquired gently.

Sam's head snapped up. She hastily wiped the wetness of tears from her face. "Sir! I, uh. . . ."

"There's no need to explain or apologize, Carter. I'm worried, too."

"Yes, sir. Have you heard anything?"

"No. But I just had a conversation with Harry Maybourne."

Sam's eyes widened in surprise. "Maybourne?"

"Yeah. I left him a message via email to call me. I figured he'd have contacts that we don't and might be able to find out something."

"But why would he help, sir? He's a wanted criminal that you helped put behind bars, and he has no reason to like Daniel. Just the opposite."

"Oh, I gave him a few good reasons, one being that, if he didn't and something happened to Daniel, I'd personally hunt him down and dissect him into tiny little pieces, _after_ Teal'c had some quality time with him, of course. I think that convinced him that helping us would be a wise choice for the sake of his continued good health."

Sam smiled faintly. Her smile faded. "What do you think they're doing to Daniel, sir?"

Jack sat down. "Well, they're not going to hurt him, not physically. They need him conscious and relatively healthy if they're going to get those Goa'uld memories out of him."

"But he must already be injured since there was blood in the car."

"Yeah, I know. I just hope it wasn't serious. They wouldn't take him to a hospital, so, unless they have a doctor working for them, Daniel probably won't get much medical attention. But they need him alive, so they're going to at least see to that."

Sam's eyes met his, fear darkening the blue depths. "Sir, what will we do if they manage to retrieve those Goa'uld memories, and Daniel is . . . isn't _Daniel_ anymore?"

"Like I said before, we'll try to reverse it somehow. I'm not going to give up on him, no matter what."

"Me neither. I know that, when Jolinar was inside me, none of you gave up on me. We'll get Daniel, _our_ Daniel, back somehow."

"You betcha."

* * *

The second time Daniel awoke, he felt a little better, at least his head did. His ribs were still killing him. Moving was the last thing he wanted to do, but his bladder was making it known that it really needed to be emptied. Daniel hoped that the other door, the one that his charming visitor had not entered by, led to a bathroom. Otherwise, things were going to get messy. The problem was, how was he going to get there?

Preparing himself, Daniel very slowly sat up. The pain in both his head and chest flared into a silently screaming chorus, and, for a moment, Daniel thought he was going to pass out. Fighting back the blackness, he waited a few moments to catch his breath, then sat up the rest of the way. Dizziness assailed him, and he grabbed onto the bed for support. His nausea had returned and was threatening to make his breakfast put in a reappearance. A cold sweat had broken out on his forehead.

Once he felt like he could stand without falling flat on his face, Daniel slowly got to his feet. He almost made a swift descent back onto the bed, but somehow managed to stay in a vertical position.

Using the wall as a brace, Daniel made it to the door that he hoped was to a bathroom. The sight of a toilet and sink once he opened the door filled him with relief. Clinging to the edge of the sink, he succeeded in relieving himself. He'd no sooner done that, however, when his stomach rebelled, and he was on the floor retching into the toilet. Agony tore through his chest and head, and his vision greyed. Holding onto the toilet bowl, he desperately fought to remain conscious, but as the last of the heaves came to an end, everything went dark, and he crumpled to the floor.

* * *

"What's your status?" Colonel Breck asked.

"Jackson is presently unconscious," Major Howell replied. "He's woken up twice so far, but he over exerted himself the last time while using the bathroom."

"Did he injure himself more?"

"No. Lieutenant Newman thinks that he's all right, though the broken ribs and concussion are definitely causing a problem."

"Things are getting hot, Major. The president has every intelligence agency in the country, not to mention the military, looking for Jackson, including those in the NID who are not connected to us. The search has been given top priority."

"Damn. We didn't count on that, sir."

"No. Apparently, the president has been convinced that the knowledge hidden inside Jackson's mind could pose a serious threat to the planet if the wrong people – namely, us – get their hands on it."

"So, what are we going to do?"

"The instant Newman feels that Jackson is strong enough to undergo the hypnosis, I want it done. We need to get what we can out of him as fast as possible. Once we've got the plans to that defense system that Jackson built in his dream, as well as the personal shields, the transport rings, and the method to disable a Stargate, we'll cut our losses and get out of here."

"Cut our losses? You mean that we're not going to take Jackson with us like we planned?"

"No. As long as he's in our possession, they'll never stop looking. Once he's dead, the search will end, and no one will know if we managed to get the information from him."

"Sir, if we kill Jackson, his teammates will be even more determined to hunt us down."

"I'm not worried about SG-1. Without the resources of the rest of the military and the intelligence community, they'll never be able to find us."

* * *

Daniel's third ascension into the realm of the conscious was soon followed by the realization that he was not alone. He opened his eyes to see that his oh so polite visitor had returned. He also found out that he had been put back in the bed. In addition to that, the pain had eased considerably. They must have given him some painkillers while he was out.

"Hello again, Doctor Jackson. You know, you really should have given us a holler if you needed to use the facilities."

"Well, I've been taking care of that on my own since I was around one and a half, so you can understand why I wasn't eager to ask for help. Besides, I failed to see a call button around anywhere."

"No need for a call button. There's someone watching you round the clock. Just call out, and somebody will come give you a hand."

"How very four-star of you. Too bad the decor and the view don't match the excellent room service."

The man shrugged. "Budget cuts. What can I say?"

Daniel stared at him. "You know, you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don't know yours."

"Ah. Well, for the sake of convenience, how about if you just call me . . . Roy."

"Roy?"

"Yippee-ki-yay."

Daniel frowned, thinking that sounded vaguely familiar.

'Roy' smiled at him. "I'm guessing that you're not a fan of Die Hard."

That's when it clicked. "Ah. Die Hard, huh? You and Jack would get along marvelously . . . well, all except for the fact that he'd likely kill you."

Roy chuckled. Then he sobered. "I hate to do this to you, Doctor Jackson, but I've been ordered to determine when you're healthy enough for us to get busy with what we invited you here for, and, though I know that you're still having trouble with that concussion of yours, not to mention the ribs, I think that we can start the process."

Daniel was suddenly terrified, knowing that what they intended to do might release all of the Goa'uld genetic memories into his consciousness.

"Listen, I know that you're probably not going to believe me, but what you're planning to do is too dangerous," he said. "If you know about what Shifu did to me, you know what I became in that dream and you know what nearly happened because of it."

"Yes, we know the whole story as you wrote it in your report. I understand your concerns, but we will be very cautious in using whatever technology we glean from your memory. We're certainly not going to risk starting World War Three."

"And what about me? You know what that knowledge is going to do to me." Daniel paused. "Or am I not going to live long enough to cause a problem in that regard?"

Daniel saw a flicker of regret in the man's eyes. "We had intended on keeping you to get as much information out of you as possible, but it seems that the president has lit a big fire under a lot of feet. Congratulations, Doctor. You are presently in the top ten on the country's list of most sought after people."

"Go me."

Daniel fell silent. In a way, the news of his impending death was a relief to him. He'd far rather be dead than be what he was in that dream. On the other hand, where there was life, there was hope, and a tiny part of him had carried the hope that, if he was taken over by the Goa'uld genetic memory, someone would figure out a way to make him forget again. Or perhaps Oma or Shifu would come to help.

"All right, we might as well get started with this," Roy said.

"What are you going to do?"

"Well, first, we're going to hypnotize you, which, as you may know, is sometimes used to unbury repressed memories."

"Um, I don't know a whole lot about hypnosis, but doesn't the subject have to be a willing participant?"

"Yes, that is normally true. You can't force a person into a state of hypnosis against their will. However, we happen to have a handy little drug that will put you in a mental state that will make you easy to hypnotize."

Roy went to the door and opened it. He ushered in two men, one with a wheelchair that had straps on the arms and another with a wheeled tray carrying a vial of clear liquid and a syringe. As they approached him, Daniel thought about putting up a fight, but he knew that he was far too weak to accomplish anything except possibly putting one of his broken ribs through a lung. On the one hand, that would definitely stop them from hypnotizing him, but, on the other hand, he'd probably die before they got him medical attention.

Daniel was carefully gotten out of the bed and placed in the wheelchair. His arms were strapped down. While that was being done, Roy filled the syringe.

Daniel started to recall some of the things that Jack had taught him about how to resist chemical interrogation. He didn't know if any of those things would help against the drug he was going to be given, but it was worth a try. He also knew that people could not be made to do things against their will while under hypnosis. Would his fear of the Goa'uld memories be enough to combat the drugs? If it wasn't, he'd be lost, and no one would be able to help him.

Roy tied a band around Daniel's upper arm and started looking for a good vein. As he lowered the needle to Daniel's skin, the archeologist caught his gaze.

"Please don't do this," he pleaded. "You're making a mistake."

Again, Daniel saw something flicker in the man's eyes, then it was gone. The needle was inserted in his vein and the drug injected.

"That will take a few minutes to take effect," Roy said as he put the used syringe back on the tray. He turned to one of the other men. "Make sure they're recording this. We don't want to miss anything." The man left the room.

Two or three minutes had passed when Daniel started experiencing some lightheadedness. It was soon followed by a strange feeling of complete peacefulness, like nothing mattered and all was right with the world. He tried to fight it, but the feeling was too powerful. He was floating on a tranquil cloud where there were no worries, no fears, no pain.

"Hello, Daniel," said a quiet voice. Daniel looked up and, through a haze, saw Roy's face smiling down at him.

"Hi," Daniel responded, not realizing that his voice had the inflections of a child.

"How are you feeling?"

"Really good. Haven't felt this good in a long, long time, not since, um . . . not since Mom and Dad died when I was a little kid."

"Well, I'm glad that you're feeling so good. Now, I need you to pay attention to me. I'm going to be hypnotizing you, but it won't hurt."

Daniel frowned. "I'm not supposed to let you do that."

"I know, but it's all right. There's nothing to worry about. There's nothing bad here. We're all friends. Okay?"

Daniel thought about it for a moment, or at least what qualified as thought in his present state. "Okay."

"Good. Let's get started."

As Roy went through the steps of putting him into a state of hypnosis, a voice deep inside Daniel was calling out, telling him that he needed to fight. But the effects of the drug were too strong, and Daniel succumbed to the mesmerizing quality of Roy's voice. 


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Jack snatched up his phone before the first ring was finished, hoping that it was the call he'd been anxiously awaiting.

"Hello again, Jack," said Maybourne's voice.

"What have you got?"

"What, no hello? I'm hurt."

"Maybourne, we don't have time for this. _Daniel_ doesn't have time for this. Have you found anything or not?"

"Yes, I have. First of all, I have a name: Major Raymond Howell. He's stationed in D.C. but is presently on leave. He is supposed to be on vacation in sunny Florida, but I'd hazard a guess that he's a great deal closer to your location. My sources tell me that he is directly involved in Jackson's kidnapping and is personally overseeing the operation, which I have also learned is somewhere just outside of Denver. I guess they didn't want to risk transporting Jackson too far."

"What else?"

"It is believed that the people who took Jackson have in their possession a Goa'uld memory recall device."

Jack let out a curse. That was _so_ not good news. "Do you have any idea where outside of Denver they are?"

"I'm afraid not. It took a bit of doing just to get that. I'm not as connected as I used to be. Maybe I'll try getting back into the game a bit more. You never know what might happen in the future. If I find out anything else about Jackson, I'll contact you."

"All right. If you don't get me here, call my cell. I'm sure you've got the number." Jack paused. "Thanks, Maybourne."

"My pleasure. I think I like the idea of you owing me a favor."

"I'll repay the favor by not shooting you dead the next time I see you."

Maybourne chuckled. "Fair enough."

Jack hung up the phone and went to Hammond's office.

"We've got a name, sir. Major Raymond Howell, stationed out of D.C."

"Howell? All right, I'll pass that on. Let's see what can be dug up on the man."

"Sir, it's very important that Major Howell not be aware that we know about him. If he suspects that we've ID'd him, he may get spooked and make a run for it. There's no telling what would happen to Daniel then."

"What would you suggest?"

"Let Carter do some digging on the Internet and see what we can find out on him," Jack replied. "If we can't track him down that way, we'll think of something else."

The general nodded. "All right. Did you learn anything else?"

"Two things, one good, one bad. The good thing is that Daniel is being kept someplace near Denver."

"That is good news. It'll mean a quicker and easier extraction when the time comes. What's the bad news?"

"It looks like these people do have one of those memory recall things."

Hammond was silent for a long moment, his expression troubled. "Do you think they've used it on him yet?"

"I don't know, sir. If Daniel was injured in the crash, they may have to wait till he partially recovers, especially if he has a head injury, which is likely, judging by where the blood was found in his car."

"I guess, then, that all we can do is hope that we rescue Doctor Jackson before they have a chance to use that device."

"Yes, sir," Jack agreed, knowing that was a slim hope at best.

* * *

"What is the problem?" Major Howell asked Roy, whose real name was Lieutenant Andrew Newman.

Newman looked up at the camera through which the major was watching. "He's fighting it, sir."

"I thought you said that would be impossible with that drug in his system."

"It should be, but he's still managing to do it. Every time I try to get him to remember beyond the conscious memories he already has of the dream, his heart rate, blood pressure and respiration go up, and he grows agitated. Sir, according to what we learned, Doctor Jackson has a deep-seated fear that he will be taken over by the Goa'uld genetic memories like he was in the dream. If that fear is strong enough, it would counter the effects of the drug, and no amount of pushing would be able to get past it."

"I don't like what you're telling me, Lieutenant."

"I'm sorry, sir. Let me try one more thing." Newman turned back to Daniel. "Daniel? Are you afraid that the memories of the Goa'uld will take control of you?"

A vague expression of fear touched Daniel's otherwise calm features. "Yes. I don't want to be a Goa'uld. They made Sha're a Goa'uld. They made her do terrible things. I did terrible things when I was a Goa'uld in the dream. I killed Teal'c. I hurt Sam and Jack. I-I murdered millions of people. I can't let that happen for real. I'd rather die first. I made Jack promise to kill me if it happened."

"Daniel, you don't have to worry. That isn't going to happen. The only memories we want are of the weapons and other technology that you built. That's all. All the bad stuff, the evil memories, won't come out. You trust me, don't you?"

There was a long silence. "T-the weapons? I-I used the weapons to kill people. I blew up Moscow. All those people, men, and women, and children who never hurt anyone." A single tear slid down Daniel's cheek. "No weapons. I can't give anyone the weapons."

Newman straightened with a sigh and looked up at the camera. "It's no good, sir. The guilt and trauma of what he did in the dream are too strong."

"All right, then we'll have to try using the memory recall device. You do have the drug we're going to use on him to control him, don't you?"

"Yes, sir, but we're going to have to wait until this other drug is out of his system. Combining the two would be too risky."

"How long?"

"Four to five hours, to be on the safe side. He'll probably sleep that whole time."

"Very well. I will return then."

Newman turned his attention back to the archeologist. "Daniel? We're all done now. I'm going to count to three. When I get to three, you will awaken. You will not remember what happened while you were under hypnosis. Okay, one . . . two . . . three."

Daniel came up out of the hypnosis. He looked up at Newman with heavy-lidded eyes.

"Hello, Daniel. Welcome back. I bet you're tired."

"Yeah. Can I take a nap? I don't feel so good."

Newman studied the archeologist's pale features. "Sure, that would be fine. Let's help you out of that wheelchair and lay you down."

Daniel was removed from the wheelchair and carefully laid on the bed, the men taking care not to jostle his broken ribs. Within seconds, Daniel was asleep. Newman watched him for a while, a frown on his face, then, along with the other men, left the room.

* * *

"Sir, I think I found him!" Sam said excitedly as she came into Jack's office.

"Where is he?" Jack asked.

"Well, if it is him, he's in the Hyatt Regency in Denver. He's staying there under the assumed name of Robert Combs."

"You're not sure it's him?"

"Not a hundred percent, sir. Major Howell took a flight to Miami, Florida two days ago. He checked into a hotel there, paying in advance for five days. I managed to find out that no one has seen him there since then, though it would appear, at least on the surface, that somebody is staying in the room. I then checked all the flights out of Miami to Denver that he could have been on that same day. He was not listed as a passenger on any of them. Assuming that he was traveling under a pseudonym, I made note of all the male passengers traveling alone. Judging by the class of hotel that he booked in Miami, I checked the guest lists of all the better hotels in Denver, looking for matches among the people who checked in that day. There were six. I did a background check on all six people and found that Robert Combs doesn't seem to exist. I think he's our man, sir."

"Good work, Carter. Do you know where he is now?"

"No. I got the idea to check his cell phone records for the past two days, thinking that he would be keeping in touch with whomever is with Daniel, but I came up with nothing, which means that he's probably using a phone that's not listed under his name. I do, however, have the make, model and license plate number of the car he rented at the airport. I called in a favor with a friend I have in the Denver office of the FBI, and he's going to be watching the hotel for us."

"All right, I think it's time that we take a trip to Denver. But we need to make sure nobody knows except Hammond. We have no way of knowing how big these people's ears are. The problem is that this means we can't take any weapons off the base since we wouldn't be able to get past the checkpoints without them being detected. We'll have to make due with what's available to us off-base."

Jack and Sam went to Hammond's office and told him what they'd learned. The general gave them permission to go to Denver, telling them that, if they needed backup, to let him know.

Their tension was high as SG-1 left the mountain. Sam drove her car. Jack and Teal'c were in Jack's. At home, Sam quickly changed into all black clothing. Putting her personal sidearm in the holster at her hip, she pulled her jacket over it and slipped out the back door of her house. Cutting through the backyards of several neighbors, Sam made her way to the end of the block. There, she waited. A few minutes later, Jack pulled up in a dark blue SUV he borrowed from a neighbor, who was a retired Army sergeant Jack had been friends with since before the Stargate Project. Knowing there was a chance that people were watching them, Jack had borrowed the car after he and Teal'c did the same thing Sam did to leave her house undetected. Like her, Jack was dressed all in black and was armed with the pistol he kept at home. Teal'c had the gun Jack kept in the glove compartment of his car.

The three members of SG-1 got on the road to Denver, making sure that they weren't being followed. They headed straight to the hotel where Major Howell, alias Robert Combs, was staying. They met up with Sam's FBI agent friend.

"Hello, Sam," the fed greeted.

"Hey, Lucas. This is Colonel O'Neill and Murray."

The man shook Jack's and Teal'c's hands. "Your suspect returned to the hotel not quite an hour ago. He's been there ever since. He matches the description Sam gave me. As she requested, I planted a tracking device on his vehicle." He handed the tracker to Sam. "It's got a range of only one mile, so don't get too far behind him."

"Thanks, Lucas. I'll take you and Pam out for a big dinner some night to pay you back."

Lucas shook his head. "Call it even, Sam." He smiled. "Just make sure you return that to me." He pointed at the device in her hand. "I don't want it coming out of my paycheck."

The FBI agent left, and SG-1 settled down to wait, desperately hoping that Howell would lead them to Daniel and that it wouldn't be too late for their friend when they found him.

* * *

Major Howell left the hotel room and got in his car. Newman had reported that Daniel Jackson was showing signs of awakening and that the drug appeared to be out of his system.

Howell was starting to get more than a little nervous. Some of the people looking for Jackson were getting a little too close for comfort. They needed to get the information out of the archeologist as quickly and possible.

Howell had decided that Jackson's body should be dumped someplace where it would be found quickly. They would leave his ID on him so that he would be immediately identified. In that way, the search for him would be stopped right away.

The major was a couple of miles from where Daniel was being kept when he ran into a huge traffic jam.

"What the hell?" Seeing a cop, he waved him over. "What's going on?"

"There's a three car pileup on the road, sir."

"Damn." He fished out his map and pointed to a spot on it. "I need to get here. Is there another route that I can take?"

The cop thought for a moment. "No, I'm afraid not, sir, not without going a good ten miles out of your way. We should have the road cleared enough to start letting cars by in about twenty minutes."

Howell cursed under his breath. "All right. Thank you." Howell toyed with the idea of taking the alternate route, but decided that, as unfamiliar as he was with the area, it would probably be better just to wait it out here. He grabbed his cell phone and made a call.

"I've been delayed," he told Newman as soon as the man got on the line. "There's a big accident that's got traffic snarled. I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get through it. I don't want you waiting for me. The second that Jackson is ready, use the device."

"Yes, sir. What do you want us to do once we have what we need?"

"Kill him. I don't care how you do it as long as it's clean and won't leave any evidence behind that can be traced back to us. Then take his body someplace where he'll be easily found. Leave his wallet on the body. I want him to be ID'd. Once you kill Jackson, clear everything out of the place and sanitize it."

"And what if we can't access the Goa'uld memories with the device?"

Howell paused. "Same orders. We can't afford to keep Jackson any longer. We'll just have to chalk it up as a loss."

"Yes, sir."

"Call me if there's a problem."

Howell disconnected the call. Seeing that the traffic wasn't moving at all, he put his car in park and turned off the engine, preparing to wait for as long as it took to get through the mess and to see whether or not their mission was going to be a success.

* * *

"Is this moving at all? It's not moving at all," Jack complained, glaring at the endless line of stationary cars ahead of them.

"On the bright side, sir, neither is Major Howell, so we don't have to worry about losing him," Sam pointed out.

"Damn. What a time for someone to get into an accident. I just hope that, while we're stuck here in traffic, someone isn't messing with Daniel's brain."

Everyone in the car fell silent, thinking about their missing teammate. They were all trying to think positively, but the fear of what was being done to Daniel was within all of them. What would they find when they got to wherever Howell was leading them? Jack made a promise to Daniel and to himself that, if it was too late to save his friend, Howell and everyone with him would pay for what they did.

* * *

_'This is starting to get old,'_ Daniel said to himself as he yet again awoke to the view of the same white ceiling. For a few seconds, he couldn't recall what had happened this time, then it suddenly came back to him, along with a feeling of panic. He lay absolutely still. Did they succeed? Were they able to gain access to the Goa'uld memories? Daniel examined his own thoughts and feelings. He felt . . . normal. There were no Goa'uld-like thoughts, no desire for power or feelings of superiority. He was himself, Daniel Jackson. Daniel relaxed marginally. So, what did that mean?

"Welcome back, Doctor Jackson."

Daniel turned his head to look at the man he knew as Roy. He said nothing, his eyes searching the other man's for some clue to what happened.

"We did not retrieve the memories, Daniel," Roy said, his voice almost gentle. Then he smiled. "You are one stubborn S.O.B., that's for sure. Even with the drug and the hypnosis, you refused to give up the memories."

"So, what's next?"

Roy's smile disappeared. "It's time for us to use the memory device. I'm afraid that I'll have to be giving you another drug that will aid us in retrieving the memories we want."

"Roy, you can still stop this. You don't have to do this."

"I'm afraid that I do, Daniel. I have my orders."

"Why? I just don't understand it. I don't understand why you, your bosses, Makepeace and the others have turned against everything that you're supposed to be upholding, thrown away your integrity, and chosen to do the things that you do. You have hurt a lot of people with your actions. You nearly wiped out an entire civilization when you took the touchstone from Madrona. Doesn't that bother you? Doesn't destroying the civilizations on other planets mean anything to you people? Or is Earth the only planet that matters to you? Are all the billions of other human lives out there in the galaxy considered expendable as long as you get what you think we need to protect Earth?"

Roy didn't reply.

"In that dream Shifu gave me, I got a good, hard look at what's inside the soul of the Goa'uld, and it is an ugly, horrible thing," Daniel continued. "They do things without regard for human life. They kill without remorse. They wipe out thousands, even millions to get what they want. They'll lie, cheat, and steal and will betray and kill their own kind. They do all those things and believe that they have the right to do so, that they're justified in doing those things. You people have lied, cheated, and stolen. You've betrayed your oath to your country and the trust that was placed in you. You have caused the deaths of who knows how many people. You've nearly committed mass murder on a planetary scale! And you think that you have the right to do so, that you're justified in doing those things. Sure, you think you're doing it for the sake of Earth, but does that really make you all that much different from the Goa'uld?"

Roy still didn't say anything. Instead, he went to the door and let in the same two guys who had been there before. Yet again, Daniel was strapped into the wheelchair and injected with some drug. The pain in his chest had returned with a vengeance, and, now, for some reason, Daniel was also feeling pain in his left shoulder. But his physical pain was nothing compared to the fear that was taking hold of him. All the times that he'd faced torture, horrible injuries, even death, he'd never felt the terror that he was now experiencing. Was this what people who were about to be made a host to a Goa'uld felt, to know that they would soon cease to be the person they were? Was this what Sha're felt as Amaunet prepared to take her? Daniel almost wished that he was about to have a Goa'uld put inside him. At least then he'd have the hope that the Goa'uld could be removed from him, as it was from Skaara. But how were they going to remove the Goa'uld he might become when there was no symbiote to take out?

Daniel was taken to another room where a table had been set up with what he guessed must be the holographic projector that would work in conjunction with the memory recall device, displaying the memories that were drawn out. Two video cameras had been set up to record everything.

_'God, this can't be happening. Please, Jack. Hurry! I'm running out of time!' _

Daniel could feel the drug Roy had given him taking hold. He felt like he was losing control, his will power weakening. His mind was starting to play tricks on him.

Daniel watched as Roy opened a small box on the table and took out the memory device. At the sight of the disc, Daniel remembered the second to the last time he'd seen one, when SG-1 and Martouf went to Netu to rescue Jacob. Apophis had given him the Blood of Sokar and used the memory device. He'd tried to trick Daniel into telling him where the Harcesis child was, but Daniel fought him and succeeded in keeping the memories out of Apophis' reach.

Martouf said that there was no way to specifically target certain memories with the device, that unrelated memories could surface.

Daniel's desperate mind latched onto those two words: unrelated memories.

As Roy put the memory device on Daniel's right temple and turned on the holographic projector, the archeologist began filling his mind with memories of other things, joyful times in his past: his childhood with his parents, his year with Sha're, moments of friendship and happiness, of laughter and love. He prayed that they would drown out the evilness that lie waiting in his subconscious, not knowing if it would be enough to save his soul. 


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

They were finally on the move again. Jack kept a half-mile between them and Howell, not wanting to be so close that the man could spot them, but not so far away that there was any danger of losing the guy.

About a mile and a half beyond the accident site, Howell turned off onto a side street. He went to the end and pulled into a long driveway that led to a large house. Jack pulled over just out of sight of it. He, Sam and Teal'c exited the car and silently made their way to a location where they could see the front of the house. Jack pulled a pair of binoculars out of the backpack he'd brought.

"There are two men on guard out front," he announced. "We need to take them out without alerting those inside." He dug into the bag and extracted two tazer stun guns.

"Sir?" Sam said in surprise, wondering where the colonel had gotten the stun guns at such short notice.

Jack smiled faintly. "You'd be surprised at what I have lying around my house, Carter."

"I bet."

Jack handed one of the stun guns to her. "We need to be within fifteen feet of the targets, closer, if possible. That clump of shrubbery to the right of the driveway looks like it'll do. Aim for the widest part of the body. Teal'c, I need you to create a distraction that will draw their attention away from us. Circle around to the left and make a little noise. Not too much, just enough for them to hear and make them turn in that direction."

The Jaffa quickly yet silently went down the driveway far enough that he wouldn't be seen by anyone at the house. He crossed the driveway and made his way back up to a spot across from where he knew his teammates were. He positioned himself behind some shrubs. Waiting one minute to be certain that Jack and Sam were in position, he reached his hand into the bushes and shook them vigorously. The two men on guard immediately turned toward the sound. An instant later, Sam and Jack jumped up and fired their stun guns. The probes hit the men and delivered the paralyzing electrical current. The men shuddered and jerked violently, falling to the ground as the charge from the tazers robbed them of neuromuscular control.

SG-1 quickly approached the men. Using the butt of his gun, Jack clubbed the two men in the head. Making sure they were unconscious, he pulled the probes out of their bodies, being careful not to touch the probes themselves since they were still delivering a current. Jack and Teal'c then dragged the men into the bushes, bound their hands and feet, and gagged them.

SG-1 cautiously made their way to the back door. Peeking in through the kitchen window revealed that the room was empty. They slipped inside and found places to take cover. They could hear someone moving around beyond the kitchen.

Using hand signals, Jack told Sam and Teal'c what he wanted them to do. All three of them crept toward the doorway that led out of the kitchen. A swift peek out into the dining room revealed two men sitting at the table, drinking coffee. SG-1 prepared themselves to rush the men.

And that's when disaster struck. A third man, who must have been outside, came in the back door. He let out a shout upon seeing SG-1 and grabbed his weapon.

With the speed of all his years in the military, Jack shot the man dead center in the chest. At the same time, the two men in the dining room leapt from their chairs, guns drawn, and were promptly shot by Sam and Teal'c.

"Go! We need to find Daniel!" Jack yelled to his teammates, knowing that, at this very minute, someone could be killing the archeologist.

They all rushed out into the living room. Two men came running down the stairs. Jack, Sam and Teal'c took cover as bullets hurled their way, ripping into furniture and the floor. Sam and Jack got off shots, bringing down the two men, who toppled down the stairs and lay still.

There was a moment of complete silence. Before SG-1 could move, two shots rang out from upstairs. Then there was more silence.

_'God, no,'_ Jack whispered in his mind, terrified that those shots heralded Daniel's death.

SG-1 hurried up the stairs and straight toward where the gunshots had originated. Standing on the right side of the door, Jack sent more hand signals to Sam and Teal'c, who were on the other side. He then placed his hand on the door knob.

_'One . . . two . . . three,'_ he mouthed. On three, he turned the knob and pushed open the door. He and Sam swung their arms through the doorway, guns ready. What they saw made them freeze.

Major Howell was lying face down on the floor, blood puddling beneath his head. A few feet away, strapped to a wheelchair and facing away from them, was Daniel. He wasn't moving.

Their hearts hammering in their chests, Sam, Jack and Teal'c slowly approached their teammate, fearful that they'd gone through all this only to be moments too late to save Daniel's life.

No blood met his eyes as Jack knelt beside his friend. He raised a hand to Daniel's neck and felt for a pulse.

"He's alive," he said, a powerful wave of relief flowing through him.

Sam moved around to the other side of the chair. She was reaching out to Daniel when she suddenly froze, her face paling.

"Carter? What is it?" Jack asked.

"Sir, they . . . they've used the memory device."

Dread rising inside him, Jack rose to his feet and moved around to Daniel's right. There on his temple was one of the tiny discs that Jack had hoped never to see again.

"God, sir. What if—" Sam's voice broke off.

"We don't know if they did, Sam. He might be okay." _'Dammit, Daniel. You be okay, you hear me?' _

Sam knelt and began checking Daniel out. The archeologist's face was white as chalk, his skin cool and clammy. His pulse was racing, respiration short and fast.

"Sir, he's in shock," Sam announced. "We need to get him to a hospital."

As Sam called 911, Jack and Teal'c freed Daniel's arms. Jack carefully ran his hands over the archeologist's body. It took only seconds to find the spot on his lower left chest where the give in his rib cage told him that Daniel had at least two broken ribs. He noticed that Daniel's abdomen looked wrong, though it was hard to tell while his friend was sitting upright.

"Teal'c, we need to lay him down. Be careful of the ribs."

Very carefully, the two men got Daniel's unconscious body out of the chair and onto the floor. Jack could now see that Daniel's abdomen definitely appeared to be distended. He knew what that meant.

"Carter, he's bleeding internally."

Sam relayed the new information to the 911 operator, who told her that an ambulance was on the way. As soon as she disconnected the call, she contacted the base.

"General, it's Major Carter. We've got Daniel. He'd badly injured, sir, broken ribs, internal hemorrhaging and what looks like a head injury. We've called for an ambulance, but you need to get Doctor Fraiser out here as fast as possible." She gave him their location.

"Major, what about. . . ." Hammond's voice trailed off.

"We don't know, sir. They've used the memory device on him, but we don't know if . . . if he's okay or not."

"All right. I'll send some men with Doctor Fraiser just in case."

Sam knew what he meant. They'd need those men just in case Daniel had to be restrained.

Jack and Teal'c had elevated Daniel's legs and covered him with Jack's jacket. There was nothing else they could do for him except hope and pray that the ambulance got there in time.

Sam looked over at the body of Major Howell. "Who do you think shot Howell, sir, and where did they go? They couldn't have gotten past us." She looked around and saw a door on the left side of the room. She cautiously approached it and swung the door open, using the wall for cover. Peeking her head around the door, she saw that the room beyond was empty. The window was wide open.

"He got out the window, sir."

"Okay. The question is, why did he shoot one of his own people?" Jack asked, not really expecting Sam to have an answer.

"Good question, sir."

As they waited for the ambulance to arrive, Jack instructed Teal'c to go get the emergency flares out of his pack and light them around the house so that the helicopter would be able to find it more easily. As the Jaffa did that, Jack searched the house. He found a room with a TV monitor showing an image being broadcast from a closed circuit camera. The image was of a room with a bed, and he guessed that's where they'd been keeping Daniel. Beside the monitor was an empty VCR. Jack recalled seeing a VHS tape lying on the table where Daniel was and guessed that whatever was recorded by the VCR was on that tape.

After going through the rest of the house and checking to see of any of the men they shot were alive – which they weren't – Jack returned to where Sam was watching over Daniel. Teal'c had finished outside and joined him.

"How's he doing?" the colonel asked asked the major.

"Not good, sir. If he isn't gotten to a hospital soon, I don't think he's going to make it."

Not wanting to think about that, Jack looked at the video camera that had been set up in the room. The object that Sam had said was a holographic projector was gone, most likely hidden away in one of her jacket pockets. Also gone was the tape from the camera and the one that had been on the table.

"They're right here, sir," Sam told him, patting her pockets. "If they got anything from Daniel, we'll know. I also removed the memory device from him."

To their relief, they all heard the sound of approaching sirens.

"Carter, get down there and instruct the EMTs," Jack ordered. "Make sure they come straight up here. Everyone else is dead."

A short while later, the EMTs came rushing in. They paused upon seeing Major Howell's body, then moved toward Daniel. Jack and Teal'c got out of their way. Two cops entered the room, quickly assessed the situation, then went straight toward the two members of SG-1. After Jack showed them his ID, he was questioned over what had gone down. He suspected that Sam was suffering the same thing outside since she was not back yet.

Jack told the cops an abbreviated version of the truth, leaving out, of course, the real reason why Daniel was kidnapped. He merely told the cops that Daniel possessed top secret information that the men were trying to obtain.

Jack was relieved when he heard the approach of a helicopter, guessing that it was from the base. Sure enough, the chopper landed out in the yard. Janet, Sam and two SFs came into the room a few moments later. The doctor went over to where Daniel was being worked on and introduced herself to the EMTs. They filled her in on the archeologist's condition.

"How is he, Doc?" Jack asked as she came up to him, Sam and Teal'c.

"He's holding on, Colonel. My guess is a ruptured spleen. There is significant internal hemorrhaging. He needs to get into surgery right away. We're going to taken him to the hospital in the helicopter. Thankfully, I brought a stretcher with me just in case."

"Sir, SG-5 came with Janet and the SFs to secure the premises," Sam told him. "Should we give the tapes to them?"

"No, I want us to hang onto them. I don't want anyone but us and General Hammond watching them."

Sam nodded, agreeing with the colonel.

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as Daniel was put on a gurney and taken outside, where he was transferred to a stretcher and loaded into the chopper, a plethora of medical equipment surrounding him. Janet and one of the EMTs also got in. The two SFs were about to get in as well, but Jack stopped them.

"I'm going," he said. "There isn't enough room for all three of us, so one of you go with Carter and Teal'c in my car." He handed his keys to Sam, then climbed into the chopper with one of the SFs. A few seconds later, they were lifting into the air and speeding toward the hospital.

Jack's eyes stayed on Daniel. Though he was very worried, he had confidence that Daniel would survive. The archeologist had proven to be damn hard to kill, having survived many injuries and near death experiences, even coming back from the dead several times. He would survive this, too . . . at least that's what Jack kept telling himself.

But what would happen to him afterwards? What if they saved his life only to be forced to imprison him in a secured jail cell for the remainder of that life? If Daniel's mind was now taken over by the Goa'uld genetic memories and they couldn't find a way of reversing it, that was likely the fate awaiting him.

Silently, Jack cursed Oma Desala and what she had brought upon Daniel. He was tempted to curse Shifu, too, but didn't have the heart.

The helicopter landed at the hospital, and Daniel was rushed inside, Janet and the EMT sticking to him like glue. As they went into the ER, Jack was forced to remain out in the waiting room, as was the SF. The sergeant took a seat, but Jack was too restless to sit. He paced the confines of the waiting room, ignoring the looks that some of the other people there gave him.

Sam, Teal'c and the other SF arrived a while later.

"Any word yet, sir?" Sam asked.

"No, and I'm right on the verge of going through those doors and. . . ."

Jack's threat was cut off by the appearance of Janet. They went with her to a spot far enough away from the people in the waiting room that no one would be able to hear their conversation.

"He's been taken into surgery," the doctor announced. "We confirmed that his spleen did rupture. If it had happened at the time of the accident, he'd be dead now."

"If it wasn't the accident, then what caused it to rupture?" Jack asked.

"It was the accident that caused it, Colonel, but, sometimes, though the organ is injured, it does not rupture right away. It can sometimes happen weeks after the initial injury."

"What are his chances?" Sam asked.

"It all depends. With a ruptured spleen, the longer the delay in treatment, the lower the chances of survival. We have no idea how long it's been since the rupture occurred. There was significant hemorrhaging. He's very weak. Plus, there's the added complication of the head injury, which is going to cause some concern for the anesthesiologist. On top of that, Daniel was injected with some kind of drug. We found two puncture marks on his arm. The labs haven't come back yet on what he was given, but my guess is that it was something with mind control properties."

Sam nodded. "That would make sense. Using the memory recall device without something like that would greatly reduce the chances of finding the memories you want if the person is unwilling. They'd have to have some way of weakening the person's will power and making him susceptible to mental control."

"I need to get to the O.R.," Janet said. "I want to be there during the surgery. The moment he's out, I'll let you know. You should go to the waiting room for the surgical department. It will be quieter there."

After Janet left, Jack told the SFs to go back to the base since Daniel, in the condition he'd be in after the surgery, would not need to be restrained or put under guard. SG-1 then made their way to where they'd await news of their friend.

During the long hours that followed, they did not speak of the possibility that, though Daniel's body might be saved, his 'soul' was already gone. None of them wanted to dwell on that, but they could not prevent their minds from thinking about it and their hearts from aching at the thought.

Finally, Janet appeared.

"Daniel made it through the surgery just fine," she said with a smile. "I think he's going to be all right."

Expressions of relief came to the faces of SG-1.

"After he's out of recovery and I'm sure he's stable enough, I'm going to have him transferred to the base. Under any other circumstances, I'd wait at least a couple of days before moving him, but, if Daniel has been . . . compromised, we need to have him at the SGC before he's fully conscious and aware." Janet looked at Jack. "Have you contacted the general?"

"Yes. I filled him in on what happened. He called back a while ago to tell me that the two men we knocked out are in the brig. Not surprisingly, neither of them is talking. Some prints were lifted from the window that our mystery man escaped through. They belong to a Lieutenant Andrew Newman, who, like Howell, was stationed in D.C. His apartment is being watched, but I seriously doubt that he is ever going back there. He's probably on a plane out of the country by now."

"Does anyone know why he killed Major Howell?"

"Afraid not. That's something we may never know. He did us a favor, though. Howell may have escaped otherwise."

After the doctor called the general to give him an update on Daniel and then returned to Post-Op, SG-1 went back to waiting. Since they hadn't eaten, they got some sandwiches from the vending machine, though none of them were very hungry.

"Daniel is out of Recovery, and I believe he's strong enough to be moved to the base," Janet informed them after another seemingly interminable wait. "I've contacted them, and a helicopter is on the way."

"Has he woken up yet?" Jack asked.

"He roused for a few seconds, but he was too out of it for me to tell anything."

Jack turned to Sam and Teal'c. "Go ahead and head back to the base. I'm going to hitch a ride with Daniel and the doc."

A while later, as the helicopter headed toward the base with Jack, Janet, two SFs and an unconscious Daniel, the colonel thought about what the next few hours might bring for his best friend and the rest of SG-1. 


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

SG-1 gathered around the bed of their teammate. Daniel had made the trip without any problems and was now situated in one of the isolation rooms. He was there for security reasons.

Sam looked down at the straps on the bed. The sight of them reminded her of when Daniel was going through withdrawal from the sarcophagus addiction. She never wanted to see those things on her friend again, but the cold hard fact was that there was a very good chance they would be needed. It made her sick to think about. The thought that sweet, gentle, caring Daniel might become the monster he described in his report was almost too much to bear. What were they going to do if that happened? How could they stand to lock him away in some prison cell, possibly for the rest of his life? There had to be a way of fixing it, of returning the memories to his subconscious. Hypnosis would do it, but, unless Daniel was a willing participant, it would never work.

Sam wondered if there was some way that the memory device could be changed so that it would block memories instead of bringing them out. The Tok'ra must not have a way of doing it. If they did, Garshaw or her father would have mentioned it when they were talking about using the device on Daniel. Sam made a silent oath that, if it turned out that the Goa'uld memories were in control of Daniel, she'd do everything in her power to find some way of helping him.

General Hammond came into the infirmary. One glance at the expressions on the faces of Sam, Jack and Teal'c told him how worried they were. He was worried, too. There had been many times in the past when he had thought they'd lost or were about to lose Daniel in death. But to lose him in the way they would if the Goa'uld genetic knowledge had been released into his conscious mind was far worse. Hammond did not want to see the young man he'd grown to greatly admire turned into the unfeeling person he'd become in that dream.

"Colonel," the general called quietly. Jack and the two other conscious members of SG-1 turned to him. "We have everything set up to view the tapes."

"Yes, sir," Jack said. "I'd really like to be here when Daniel wakes up, General. I . . . need to see if he's okay."

Jack knew that, in the dream, he had not been able to tell what had happened to Daniel, but he still believed that, in real life, he'd know, that he'd be able to look into Daniel's eyes and see if the man's soul was still there.

"I understand, Colonel, but the sooner we view those tapes, the sooner we'll know if those people succeeded."

"Yes, sir." He turned to his 2IC. "Carter, stay—"

Jack halted at the sound of a moan from the bed. Everyone turned to Daniel, watching him anxiously. Janet came over and joined them. A tense moment later, the archeologist's eyes fluttered opened. He immediately saw his teammates and the others looking down at him, varying degrees of worry and anxiety on their faces. Daniel met Jack's eyes.

"Jack?" he inquired in a raspy whisper. "You . . . found me?"

"Yeah, Daniel, we found you. You're safe," Jack assured him gently.

All at once, tears welled up in Daniel's eyes. "I fought so hard," he said, his voice full of remembered pain and fear. "They kept trying to make me remember, but I . . . but I thought about all the good things, about my parents, and Sha're, and you guys. I tried to block out the dream. But I didn't know if it would work. I didn't know." His eyes locked onto Jack's. "Please tell me it worked. Please tell me I'm me."

Jack looked intently into the pleading depths of Daniel's eyes . . . and saw there the man who was his best friend. He smiled. "It worked, Daniel. You're okay. You're still you."

Daniel's entire body went limp with relief. "I'm still me," he whispered. Then, with a sigh, his eyes slid shut.

Janet came forward and checked him. "He's asleep."

Sam looked at Jack questioningly. "Sir? Is he really okay? He looked like Daniel. He sounded like him."

"It's him, Sam," Jack said with utter confidence. "He's all right."

A huge smile lit Sam's face. "Thank God. He beat it, sir. He beat them."

"Yes, he did."

"Though I agree that it appears that Doctor Jackson is all right, we still need to watch the tapes to be sure," Hammond said.

"Yes, sir," Jack said in agreement.

"I think we should all watch them, sir," Sam stated.

The general and SG-1 went to the briefing room. The first tape they put in was the one from the VCR that had been taping whatever happened in the room Daniel was kept in.

On the screen, they saw the man they knew was Lieutenant Newman inject Daniel with something. A few minutes later, the effects of the drug became apparent. Daniel's face looked utterly peaceful, childlike. His voice, when he started to talk, matched his expression. Newman convinced Daniel to allow himself to be hypnotized, then proceeded to put him into a deep state of hypnosis.

SG-1 and Hammond watched as the lieutenant repeatedly tried and failed to get Daniel to remember the Goa'uld knowledge. It was clear that Daniel's fear of that knowledge was giving him the strength and ability to fight the drug and hypnosis.

Everyone's attention intensified when they heard a voice ask Newman what the problem was. None of them recognized the voice. It was clear that, whomever that voice belonged to, he was Newman's superior. They all guessed that it was the late Major Howell.

The lieutenant said that he wanted to try something new and turned back to Daniel. He asked the archeologist if he was afraid that the memories of the Goa'uld would take control of him. Daniel's reply made everyone's heart ache for their friend.

_"Yes. I don't want to be a Goa'uld. They made Sha're a Goa'uld. They made her do terrible things. I did terrible things when I was a Goa'uld in the dream. I killed Teal'c. I hurt Sam and Jack. I-I murdered millions of people. I can't let that happen for real. I'd rather die first. I made Jack promise to kill me if it happened."_

Sam couldn't stop the gasp that came to her lips at Daniel's last sentence. She looked at her C.O. His expression was stony, but she thought she saw something dark and haunted in his eyes.

Newman tried to convince Daniel that he didn't have to worry, that he wouldn't be taken over by the Goa'uld memories, but when the lieutenant mentioned wanting the weapons, Daniel's reaction was one of grief and terrible shame.

_"T-the weapons? I-I used the weapons to kill people. I blew up Moscow. All those people, men, and women, and children who never hurt anyone."_ Daniel said, his voice heartrendingly sad, tears falling down his cheeks. _"No weapons. I can't give anyone the weapons."_

"God," Sam murmured. She wanted to rush right to the infirmary and give Daniel a big hug, to tell him that it wasn't him, that he was too good a person to ever do anything like the things that happened in that dream.

At that point, Newman gave up, having concluded that no amount of cajoling or promises was going to work.

The recording ended, and Sam put in the next tape. This one showed Daniel in the room where they'd found him. Everyone could tell by watching him that Daniel was drugged. It had been confirmed that he was injected with a powerful mind control drug. Jack knew that the drug was very effective. He'd personally seen its effects during his days in Black Ops. Many strong men had succumbed to it.

As they all watched the tape, three-dimensional images began to form above the holographic projector. Fascinated, Daniel's teammates saw scenes from their teammate's life appear in the air. But they were not the memories that Daniel's captors wanted. Every time that Newman asked about the dream Shifu gave Daniel, the archeologist responded by thinking about moments of love and happiness. Each time that the lieutenant probed Daniel for the Goa'uld memories, instead of those appearing, there were scenes of Daniel's parents, or of his year on Abydos, or, quite often, scenes of friendship and comradery with Jack, Sam and Teal'c. There were times when the images would fade and be replaced by things that they recognized must be from the dream, but, every time, Daniel would fight harder, and drive the evil memories from his thoughts.

"Yes! He beat it! He beat the drug!" Jack crowed. Once again, Daniel's stubbornness and incredibly strong will power had saved him.

Sam was grinning from ear to ear, and Teal'c was looking smugly pleased. Hammond, too, was smiling with delight.

"He certainly did, Colonel," the general said, filled with pride for the young man.

They all quieted and continued to watch the tape as Newman tried again and again to get Daniel to give them what they wanted. Partway through, someone entered the room, and they heard the same voice they did on the other tape.

"Any success?" the man, whom they were now pretty sure was Major Howell, asked.

"I'm afraid not, sir," Newman replied. "I can't get him to focus on the dream. He's deliberately filling his mind with other memories." There was a note of both surprise and respect in Newman's voice. "No matter how much I try to make him remember the Goa'uld knowledge or anything about the dream at all, he counters with stuff like that." He waved his hand at the holographic image, which showed a scene of what looked like a dig in Egypt, Daniel's parents in the foreground.

"You gave him the drug?" The major's tone of voice made it clear that he was not at all happy.

"Yes, sir, and it did seem to take effect on him, but he's fighting it, Major, and he's winning."

"That should not be possible."

"Sir, it's not unheard of. It's rare, but some people have been known to successfully fight the drug."

"The guy's a damn archeologist! This was supposed to be easy!"

"Well, sir, we were obviously wrong."

_'Oh, yeah. You were wrong, all right,'_ Jack thought smugly. _'Turns out you don't know Daniel very well. **Nothing** is easy with him.' _

"Then give him more."

"Sir, that could kill him."

"Before or after he gives us what we want?"

The cold callousness in Howell's voice made Jack wish that the man was alive and in their custody so that he could kill the major himself.

Newman did not answer. Instead, he was staring at Daniel. He bent over the archeologist, a genuine expression of concern on his face. He began examining Daniel.

"What is it?" Howell asked.

"There's something wrong. I think he's going into shock," Newman replied. "Daniel? Daniel, can you hear me?"

"Don't feel so good," Daniel replied in a weak voice.

The lieutenant examined him further. Despite his gentleness, Daniel let out a moan as the man palpated his left side. Newman let out a soft curse and turned to Major Howell, who was still off-camera.

"I think he's bleeding internally, sir. There must have been internal damage."

"I thought you said he was all right except for the ribs and concussion."

"I believed he was, sir. He showed no symptoms of internal injuries before. Major, I'm not a doctor, and I have no x-ray machine or any other medical equipment here. I did the best that I could."

"I don't want excuses, Newman!" Howell yelled, finally stepping into the view of the camera. "Keep pushing him. The bleeding is weakening him. We can get him to crack. We might still be able to salvage something."

"But, sir! He needs a doctor," the lieutenant said, obviously not happy with the order. "He'll be dead within a couple of hours if he's bleeding as badly as I think he is."

"What difference does it make? You know our orders, Lieutenant. Jackson is to be killed as soon as we get what we want from him."

"Sir, I think we're making a mistake. If we get help for Daniel, we can try again another time. We can't let him die."

"Don't question your orders, Lieutenant!" Howell snapped. "Resume questioning him. Now!"

At that moment, those watching the tape heard the sound of gunfire. SG-1 knew that it was their own weapons they were hearing.

"What the hell's going on?" Major Howell yelled.

A new voice shouted. "We're under attack, sir! The house has been infiltrated."

"Damn, damn, damn! Go! Get out there and keep them busy!"

There was the sound of people leaving the room. Howell turned back to Newman and Daniel. "We're out of time. Kill him. I don't want him identifying us."

As Howell started to turn away, everyone saw an expression of determination come over Newman's face. He pulled a gun and pointed it at Howell.

"Daniel was right. I don't want to be a Goa'uld either." Then he pulled the trigger twice, hitting Howell once in the head and once in the chest. Pausing only a brief moment to glance at Daniel, Newman fled. A short while later, SG-1 saw themselves on the screen.

Sam turned off the VCR.

Jack shook his head in amazement. "Well, I think we all know what happened. Daniel did it again. Somehow, some way, he got through to Newman and changed his mind. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. That guy never ceases to amaze me."

"Ditto, sir," Sam said with pride in her friend. "That's our Daniel."

* * *

Daniel's eyes fluttered open to see a ceiling that was neither white nor featureless. The sight filled him with relief, as did the familiar sounds of the infirmary. He'd never have thought that he would actually be glad to be there.

As he lay in the bed, Daniel remembered the last time he woke up and what Jack told him. Once again, he examined his own mind and emotions. He was okay. He was himself. The Goa'uld memories were still in their hiding place.

"Welcome back, Daniel."

The archeologist turned to see Janet smiling down at him.

"I never thought I'd say this, Janet, but it's really good to see you."

The doctor smiled. "Well, considering what you've been through, I can understand that. I should imagine the feeling will change once you've been here a few days. Are you thirsty?"

At Daniel's nod, she spooned some ice chips into his mouth.

"Thank you. So, what happened? What's wrong with me, other than the broken ribs and concussion? I already figured out those two things."

"Your spleen ruptured. We almost didn't get you into surgery in time. But you're going to be all right."

Daniel thought about that. First, his appendix, now his spleen. What was next? "What about my shoulder?"

Janet frowned. "Your shoulder?"

"My left shoulder started to hurt just before they began using the memory device on me."

"Ah. That was a symptom of the ruptured spleen. You can sometimes suffer pain in the left shoulder or left side of the neck."

"Oh." Daniel didn't bother asking how a ruptured spleen could affect a person's shoulder or neck.

Just then, an SG team came in for their post-mission physical.

"Well, I've got to get back to work," the doctor told Daniel. "Are you doing all right? Do you need an increase in your pain meds?"

"No, I'm good. Thanks, Janet."

"Okay. Call if you need anything."

A couple of minutes after the doctor left, Sam came in. A brilliant smile lit her face upon seeing that the linguist was awake.

"Hi, Daniel," she greeted cheerfully. She took hold of his hand.

Daniel smiled. "Hey, Sam." He gazed at her face so intently that it made the major a little uncomfortable.

"What? Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No. I'm just happy that I still care."

"Huh?"

"In the dream, I didn't care about anyone, Sam, not you, or Jack, or Teal'c, or anybody else. Thinking about it now, I realize how . . . empty I was. I had all that knowledge, all that power, but I was still empty."

Sam squeezed his hand. She looked down at it. "We, um, watched the tapes."

"Oh."

Sam met his eyes. "You did really good, Daniel. You beat the drugs; you beat them. We're all so proud of you."

Daniel gave her a smile of gratitude. "Thank, Sam." The smile faded. "I was afraid that I would fail, that I would. . . ." He didn't finish. "So, what happens now?"

"Same as usual, Daniel," Jack answered from a few feet away. Teal'c was with him. The two men came up to the bed. "You suffer through the doc's tender loving care for a few days, get all healed up, and then everything goes back to normal around here." Jack gave Daniel a smile. "So, how ya doin'? You know, you really gotta stop this whole nearly dying thing. You've already made my hair turn grey. Next, it's gonna start falling out."

Daniel smiled faintly. "Sorry, Jack. I'll try harder next time to avoid the near-death thing."

"You do that."

"Even though it probably saved my life this time."

"How do you figure that?"

"Well, if I hadn't been injured, they'd have started working on me right away, and one of two things would have happened. Either they would have eventually succeeded or they'd have realized it wasn't going to work and killed me."

"They wouldn't have succeeded, Daniel," Jack told him confidently.

"I concur," Teal'c stated.

"We saw what you did, Daniel," Sam said, "how you beat the drugs, and the hypnosis, and the memory recall device. Even if they'd had several more hours, I don't think it would have made a difference. In fact, I'm sure of it."

"You're just too doggone stubborn, Daniel," Jack said, smirking. "That's all there is to it."

The tiniest of smiles touched Teal'c's lips. "Indeed."

Daniel wasn't as confident. "I hope you're right."

"You bet we're right." Jack responded.

"So, what happened to the men who had me?"

"Major Howell, the man who was in charge, is dead, and so are most of the others," Sam told him.

"What about Roy?"

"Roy?"

"Oh, um, that's not really his name. Tall, dark hair, about my age. He was the one who attempted to get the information from me. I tried to talk to him, to make him see that what they were doing was wrong, but I just couldn't get through to him."

"Oh, you got through to him all right," Jack said.

"What?"

"He's the one who killed Howell."

Daniel's eyes widened. "He is?"

"We saw it all on the tape. When Howell realized that a rescue team had come to get you, he told Newman – that's his real name, by the way – to kill you so that you couldn't ID them. Newman refused and killed Howell instead. He said something weird before he did, though. He said that you were right and that he didn't want to be a Goa'uld either."

Daniel stared thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "I'm glad," he said at last. He looked at Jack with a smile. "I think that, if you'd gotten past the urge to kill him, you'd have liked him. He's a Die Hard fan."

"Well, that's definitely a point in his favor." An expression of realization came to his face. "Wait a minute. Roy. You mean. . . ."

"Yippee-ki-yay," Daniel confirmed.

"Sounds like my kind of guy. Of course, I'd still have had to beat him to a pulp for being involved in your kidnapping."

"Of course. I wonder where he is now."

"Not in this country, I'd bet."

Daniel's expression turned troubled. "He betrayed them."

"Yep."

"You think that they'll go after him?"

"It's hard to say. They might be too busy with their scheming to get advanced technology to bother trying to hunt down one guy."

Daniel nodded, hoping Jack was right. "So . . . it's over." He looked at his teammates. "Or is it? Am I going to have to keep looking over my shoulder?"

"I think that, once the rest of that group finds out that you couldn't be forced into remembering the Goa'uld knowledge, even after everything they did, they'll give up," Sam replied. "Trying again wouldn't accomplish anything."

"It's over, Daniel," Jack said with conviction. "You don't have to worry anymore."

* * *

The ringing of his phone drew Jack's attention away from the report he was writing about Daniel's rescue.

"Hello, Jack," said Maybourne's voice.

"Hello, Harry."

"So, I hear you got him back."

"We sure did. A little worse for wear, but he'll be fine."

"I also hear that they couldn't break him."

"Nope. And not for lack of trying."

There was a pause. "I guess there's more to Jackson than meets the eye," Maybourne admitted.

"Anybody who really knows Daniel could have told you that, Harry. They are going to leave him alone now, aren't they? It isn't going to do them a damn bit of good to try again."

"After the dismal failure they suffered this time, yes, I think they'll leave him alone."

"Good."

"Well, just wanted to say hello, Jack. Give Jackson my regards."

Jack hung up the phone, a faint smile on his face. "You really are something else, Maybourne."

Still smiling, Jack returned his attention to the report.

* * *

With a sense of relief, Daniel slowly eased himself onto his couch. He'd just been released, albeit reluctantly, by Janet, who had kept him in the infirmary for five days. She had wanted him there at least a full week, but he was getting stir crazy, and the doctor finally caved under his repeated pleading. Of course, she had given him strict orders to rest – meaning no work – eat only the things on the list that she gave him, take his meds when he was supposed to, and come in for a checkup twice a week. He was also not allowed to drive, so he'd be relying on others for transportation for a while. Today, it was Jack who brought him home. The man was now in the kitchen, putting away the groceries they'd stopped to get.

"So, you think you'll survive without any of your rocks to play with?" Jack asked after he was finished.

"It'll be tough, but I'll try."

"You can handle it." Jack glanced at his watch. "Well, I need to get going. We're still on for tonight, right?" He, Sam and Teal'c were planning on coming over for dinner and videos.

"Yep."

"Okay, see you later. Call if you need anything."

After Jack left, Daniel stayed on the couch, his eyes closed. His broken ribs were still quite painful, only Janet's happy pills making it possible for him to move around without being in agony. Unfortunately, the pills also tended to make him drowsy. He'd probably be spending a lot of time sleeping.

Finally finding the will to get up, Daniel went to his phone to check his messages. Most of them were nothing of importance. When he got to the fourth message, however, Daniel froze at the sound of a very familiar voice.

"Hello, Daniel. Roy here. I'm sure that, by now, you know my real name, but I think I'll stick with Roy. It has a nice ring to it. I'd guess that your teammates told you what happened. Perhaps you've even watched the tape. I just wanted to say thanks. For a while now I've been wondering if the people I worked with were going about things the wrong way, but I didn't have the courage to cut my ties with them. They're not the kind of people that you can just walk away from. But that time I spent with you really taught me some things. You are one hell of a guy, you know that? You have got to be the most stubborn, determined man I've ever met. You're also pretty damn smart. What you said about comparing us to the Goa'uld really hit hard. I realized that you were right, that the people I worked with had sacrificed a huge chunk of their integrity and were doing things that put them only a few steps above the Goa'uld.

"I'm sorry about what I put you through, and I want to make it up to you. I've sent some information to you about the people I worked with. I'm afraid that I was kind of low man on the totem pole, so I don't know many of the players. In fact, other than the guys who were there at the house, I only know one for sure: Colonel Marcus Breck. He was in charge of your kidnapping, and he was Major Howell's direct superior. What I sent you should be enough proof for you to have him arrested for your kidnapping. Just do me a favor, okay? Don't tell anyone who you got the information from. I don't want those guys coming after me. You should receive the package in a day or two at the SGC. I sent it there to be on the safe side.

"So, I guess that's all I have to say. Maybe we'll meet again someday, though it probably won't be for quite a while since I'm going to be steering clear of the U.S. for the foreseeable future.

"So long, Daniel, and take care of yourself."

Daniel sat in silence for a long time after the message had ended, hoping that, wherever Roy was, he'd be okay.

Removing the cassette from the machine and replacing it with an empty one, Daniel took the cassette with Roy's message and, after pulling all the tape from the cartridge, set fire to it. As he watched it melt, his thoughts turned to something that Sam told him a few days ago.

_"I was thinking about how you compared the Goa'uld genetic knowledge to Pandora's box. In the myth, Pandora was supposed to guard the box, to keep it safe. But she failed because she took no heed of the warning to leave it alone and let her desire to know its secrets get the best of her. You were right, Daniel. The Goa'uld knowledge is like Pandora's box. The difference is that, unlike Pandora, you heeded the warning and fought to keep the box closed. And you know what? I can't think of anyone on this whole planet who could do a better job of guarding this Pandora's box than you." _

Disposing of the remains of the tape, Daniel headed into his bedroom and laid down. Minutes later, he drifted off into dreams in which no Goa'uld played a part.

THE END 


End file.
